HSE Workshop in Tehran

Representatives of a group of French companies are scheduled to hold a workshop in Tehran this week on health, safety and environment standards in the oil and gas industry.

According to Shana, the Oil Ministry’s news agency, the workshop is scheduled for Jan. 29-30 in collaboration with the ministry. The report added that senior officials from French companies and academia, including Bureau Veritas S. A., Artelia, the Institute of French Petroleum, Axens, Total, Gas Viewer, Amethyste, Kerdos Energy, Sofergaz and Gesip, will give lectures in the workshop.  

The two-day gathering in Tehran will cover issues, including HSE design, damage prevention and physical assets management, enhancement of HSE culture and behavior-based safety, risk management of oil and gas well eruption, as well as new environmental issues in the oil industry.

Economic curbs imposed over Iran's nuclear program reined in the country's oil and gas production, throttled foreign investment and deprived it of crucial knowhow and practices to improve environmental and safety protections in the petroleum industry.

Since the lifting of sanctions in Jan. 2016, Iran's crude oil and gas production has soared and foreign investment is trickling in.

However, some experts and environmentalists have warned that efforts to bring the entire chain of the petroleum industry up to speed with new HSE standards have been scarce and insufficient.

  Growing Collaboration

RIPI, the research and development arm of the Oil Ministry, is expanding ties with European companies and institutions on technology transfer to Iran’s key oil industry.

It has held talks with Delft University of the Netherlands to help boost extraction rate in an oilfield in the southern oil-rich Khuzestan Province.

That followed an agreement between RIPI and France’s IFP Energies Nouvelles in 2016 to collaborate on reservoir studies, boosting extraction from Iran’s oil and gas fields, gas sweetening methods and protecting the environment.

Germany’s Raschig GmbH also signed a memorandum of understanding with RIPI in November on transfer of technology to Iran’s oil, gas and petrochemical industries, IRNA reported.

The preliminary deal was centered on providing Iran with the know-how to design and build distillation units at refineries and petrochemical plants based on Raschig’s equipment.

The German firm will also hold training courses in Tehran as part of the agreement.

According to ISNA, RIPI signed an MoU with another French Company Beicip-Franlab last year to draw on the petroleum consultancy firm's expertise to develop Homa Gas Field in the south of Fars Province.