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This book evaluates and compares risk regulation and safety management for offshore oil and gas operations in the United States, United Kingdom, Norway and Australia. It provides an interdisciplinary approach with legal, technological and sociological perspectives on efforts to assess and prevent major accidents and improve safety performance. Presented in three parts, it begins with a review of the factors involved in designing, implementing and enforcing a regulatory regime for industrial safety. It then evaluates the four regimes exploring the contextual factors that influence their design and implementation, their reliance on industrial expertise and standards and the use of performance indicators. Finally the book assesses the resilience of the Norwegian regime, its capacity to keep pace with new technologies and emerging risks, respond to near miss incidents, encourage safety culture, incorporate vested rights of labor, and perform inspection and self-audit functions. This book is relevant for those in government, business and academia, and anyone involved in offshore safety issues.

Since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill, efforts to improve safety in the offshore oil industry have resulted in the adoption of new technological controls, increased promotion of safety culture, and the adoption of new data collection systems to improve both safety and performance. As an essential element of a positive safety culture, operators and regulators are increasingly integrating strategies that empower workers to participate in process safety decisions that reduce hazards and improve safety. While the human factors of personal safety have been widely studied and widely adopted in many high-risk industries, process safety - the application of engineering, design, and operative practices to address major hazard concerns - is less well understood from a human factors perspective, particularly in the offshore oil industry. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a workshop in January 2018 to explore best practices and lessons learned from other high-risk, high-reliability industries for the benefit of the research community and of citizens, industry practitioners, decision makers, and officials addressing safety in the offshore oil industry. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Oil palms are ubiquitous--grown in nearly every tropical country, they supply the world with more edible fat than any other plant and play a role in scores of packaged products, from lipstick and soap to margarine and cookies.And as Jonathan E.Robins shows, sweeping social transformations carried the plant around the planet.

The Netherlands played a remarkable role during the October War and the oil crisis of 1973. In secret, the Dutch government sent a substantial amount of ammunition and spare parts to Israel. The Dutch supported Israel also politically. Within the EC they vetoed a more pro-Arab policy.

\"Tar Wars offers a critical, inside look at how leading image-makers negotiate the escalating tensions between the need for continuous economic growth mandated by a globalized economic system and its unsustainable environmental costs. As representations of a place and its identity assume paramount importance in a globalized, visual, and increasingly ecologically conscious society, a rising, international battle unfolds over Alberta's bituminous sands, pitting independent documentary filmmakers against professional communicators employed by the oil industry and government. Tar Wars will engage scholars and students in communications, film, environmental studies, social psychology, and petrocultures. It also reaches out to decision-makers, activists, and those who wish to explore the intersections of energy, environment, culture, politics, economy, media, and power in the world today.\"--

The blowout of the Macondo well on April 20, 2010, led to enormous consequences for the individuals involved in the drilling operations, and for their families. Eleven workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig lost their lives and 16 others were seriously injured. There were also enormous consequences for the companies involved in the drilling operations, to the Gulf of Mexico environment, and to the economy of the region and beyond. The flow continued for nearly 3 months before the well could be completely killed, during which time, nearly 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the gulf.Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout examines the causes of the blowout and provides a series of recommendations, for both the oil and gas industry and government regulators, intended to reduce the likelihood and impact of any future losses of well control during offshore drilling. According to this report, companies involved in offshore drilling should take a \"system safety\" approach to anticipating and managing possible dangers at every level of operation -- from ensuring the integrity of wells to designing blowout preventers that function under all foreseeable conditions-- in order to reduce the risk of another accident as catastrophic as the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. In addition, an enhanced regulatory approach should combine strong industry safety goals with mandatory oversight at critical points during drilling operations.Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout discusses ultimate responsibility and accountability for well integrity and safety of offshore equipment, formal system safety education and training of personnel engaged in offshore drilling, and guidelines that should be established so that well designs incorporate protection against the various credible risks associated with the drilling and abandonment process. This book will be of interest to professionals in the oil and gas industry, government decision makers, environmental advocacy groups, and others who seek an understanding of the processes involved in order to ensure safety in undertakings of this nature.

Plant solid residues obtained from the essential oil industry represent a rich source of phenolic compounds with bioactive properties to be used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. A selective and sensitive liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method was developed for the simultaneous determination of phenolic compounds in solid residues of the Lamiaceae family plants. A total of 48 compounds can be separated within 35 min by using the Poroshell-120 EC-C18 column, and a gradient mobile phase of 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile with flow rate of 0.5 mL/min; salicylic acid was used as internal standard. The calibration curves showed good linearity in the tested concentration range for each analyte (R2 > 0.9921), while recoveries ranged from 70.1% to 115.0% with an intra-day and inter-day precision of less than 6.63% and 15.00%, respectively. Based on the retention behavior, as well as absorption and mass spectra, 17 phenolic acids, 19 flavonoids and 2 phenolic diterpenes were identified and quantified in the solid residues obtained by distillation of six aromatic plants: oregano, rosemary, sage, satureja, lemon balm, and spearmint. The method constitutes an accurate analytical and quality control tool for the simultaneous quantitation of phenolics present in solid waste residues from the essential oil industry.

PurposePalm oil is considered as the primary source of income for many farmers in Southeast Asia and become a very important agricultural commodity for the Malaysian economy in recent years. Besides its main usage as cooking oil, it is also exported to be used in many commercial foods and personal care products, as well as biofuels productions (Wong et al. Pertanika Journal of Scholarly Research Reviews 1:33–39, 2015). Over the years, the agricultural sector, especially the livestock and dairy sectors in particular, has been increasingly criticized for their environmental as well as social impacts (Revéret et al. 2015). However, while the products of the agricultural sector contributed significantly to the economic mainstay, the social aspects of it especially those associated with the workers, communities, and environment are equally important and often neglected. The purpose of this research is to identify potential social impacts (implications on workers and local community) throughout the whole life cycle of palm oil production using the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) methodology.MethodsThe methodology of this study consisted of several steps in the framework of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study. The steps involved were goal and scope definition, Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) analysis, Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA), and interpretation. Descriptive analyses that involved the social impact associated with the operation of palm oil mill, local community, and workers were used. In order to acquire information from these stakeholders, two sets of questionnaires were constructed based on the subcategories proposed by UNEP (2009).Results and discussionThe results on social aspects showed that the workers exhibited high value of satisfaction regarding social benefits conferred upon them such as annual leave, panel clinic, Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Social Security Organization (SOCSO) scheme, and public holidays. Meanwhile, the satisfaction level of the local community is different according to specific categories. For instance, a small percentage of satisfaction exists among the local community regarding the palm oil industry especially in heritage and cultural conservation.ConclusionsFindings from the S-LCA analysis are positive as palm oil production still met the required criteria in terms of social significance to those who are in direct contact with this operation especially the workers and local community.

Being a controversial industry, oil companies turn to corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a means to obtain legitimacy. Adopting a case study methodology, this research examines the characteristics of CSR strategies and CSR communication tactics of six oil companies by analyzing their 2011-2012 web site content. We found that all six companies engaged in CSR activities addressing the needs of various stakeholders and had cross-sector partnerships. CSR information on these companies' web sites was easily accessible, often involving the use of multimedia technologies and sometimes social media platforms. Furthermore, to boost the credibility of their CSR messages, these companies utilized a variety of tactics, such as factual arguments and two-sided messages. In sum, this research unveils the interconnectedness among business strategy, CSR practices, and CSR communication in oil companies' attempt to gain legitimacy in an environment of controversy. The article ends with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the research findings.