A System-Theoretic Approach to Well Control Assurance Programs

The world's leading energy companies face new challenges as they aggressively pursue digital innovation and acceleration. Oil and gas well construction, in particular, will continue to incorporate automation to enhance capabilities and provide a competitive advantage. These changes to the technology landscape will fundamentally alter the nature of well construction and the interactions pertaining to well design, operation, and maintenance. One key element of well construction is process safety. To prevent incidents, well control assurance programs are created to ensure subsurface hazards are mitigated and controlled. However, to continuously adapt and keep pace with ongoing digital transformation, assurance programs must be continuously revisited to improve in the face of a changing environment. One way to do this is by using systems engineering principles, methods, and tools. System-Theoretic Accident Models and Processes (STAMP) and System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) developed by MIT's Nancy Leveson can help assess assurance programs and uncover opportunities to improve. This paper analyzes oil and gas assurance programs and generates system requirements based on causal factors that impact the efficacy of the assurance program as a whole. This, in turn, helps identify safe system boundaries and constraints to be enforced to achieve system safety. This paper demonstrates the value of STPA as an integrated analysis method and offers specific recommendations to improve oil and gas assurance processes.