Learning From Ten Years of Applying Framework Project Management for Safety in BP Geophysical Data Acquisition Projects

Following a fatal injury of one crew member on a land seismic acquisition crew in North Africa in 2007, BP implemented a Global Framework Project Management tool for operated surveys. Today, we can evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of BP’s Management of Geophysical Operations (MoGO) following ten years of operations under the framework.

Seismic acquisition surveys are inherently dangerous. Often, crews are comprised of large numbers of people (10s to 100s), that are required to work for months, even years, in harsh environments. Given these conditions, this activity is typically nominated “high risk” to the oil and gas operating companies. The MoGO framework has helped BP to approach each project and contractor in a disciplined, structured manner to safely plan and execute geophysical data acquisition projects. This approach has helped BP to be consistent internally and externally, for all surveys and contractors. In this paper, we provide commentary on the project phases and examples that have been shaped by environmental and safety decisions in specific phases throughout the MoGO. In some cases, projects were modified, improved or abandoned based on varying criteria where the framework process aided BP to improve safe operations in geophysical data acquisition.