How failures in interorganizational knowledge transfer impact process safety: Insights from the case study of an ageing offshore oil & gas facility acquisition

Abstract

An increasingly common form of organizational change in high-hazard industries is the acquisition of ageing facilities. While the safety implications of other types of organizational change have been widely studied, the risks associated with ageing facility acquisitions remain under-investigated. This acquisition process is often accompanied by significant challenges in interorganizational knowledge transfer (IKT). Although knowledge is widely recognized as essential to process safety, the impacts of IKT failures require further exploration, especially when original operational teams are not retained. This study aims to identify the process safety impacts of unsuccessful IKT during the acquisition of an ageing facility in which no personnel were transferred. Drawing on a qualitative case study of an offshore oil and gas platform acquisition, this study offers an in-depth analysis of the organizational and operational discontinuities that emerged during the asset handover. Safety incident data from the case study platform revealed an increase in safety incidents following the acquisition. Interviews with process safety experts and practitioners were conducted to map IKT challenges to Risk-Based Process Safety (RBPS). Failures in IKT were found to vary in their impact on process safety. Governance-related aspects of the IKT process, such as the availability of personnel from both companies during the transfer, and access to legacy databases, were found to be the most critical. These failures not only directly impacted RBPS elements such as process knowledge management but also contributed to safety impacts. These findings support the development of improved IKT frameworks for managers and regulators to avoid operational safety risks following an ageing facility acquisition.