Chevron's risk management process helps identify and address health, environment and safety risks, and it enables periodic reevaluation and continual improvement. As part of our ongoing risk management cycle, every Chevron business unit analyzes its operations to identify risks. From that analysis, action plans are defined and steps are taken to reduce risk.
Managing Risk in Drilling Operations
Chevron has extensive processes and procedures in place to manage and evaluate the risks of oil and gas production. We are committed to advancing safe drilling operations through our well design process, and proposed changes in well design or construction are managed with a structured change-management process.
Rigorous in-house training for our drilling personnel includes a comprehensive five-day global well-control training program. We require that all drilling personnel have current industry-recognized certification. Certifications cover procedures to manage unusual circumstances and the means to verify that contractors involved in drilling wells possess the skills necessary to execute well control.
We apply our drilling processes, well-control contingency plans and risk management plans across our global operations. Chevron is the only company within the industry to have an in-house team dedicated solely to understanding blowout preventers and subsea well interventions. The team also ensures drilling contractors and equipment manufacturers deliver fully compliant and reliable systems. We operate our own well-control school. Drilling specialists oversee every major well. We constantly partner with suppliers to improve equipment quality. And we have the only operator-owned cement lab in North America.
Managing Risk in Manufacturing
Refining petroleum involves a complex network that operates around the clock to produce millions of barrels of energy every day. To ensure the safe and reliable operation of our facilities, Chevron places the highest priority on personal and process safety at our refineries at all times. We have rigorous programs in place to identify, manage and reduce risk, including frequent, routine equipment inspections, system and process hazard identification evaluations and extensive personnel training.
While managing risk has always been deeply rooted in Chevron's culture, we continually look for ways to improve personal and process safety. For example, we recently undertook a system-wide turnaround improvement initiative focused on elements around safe and reliable plant shutdowns and startups.
Communication is key to the success of our refineries' risk management programs. If an incident or near miss occurs, the resulting lessons learned are shared with employees and contractors using a variety of channels, from executive messages to safety meetings. We strive to be as open and transparent as possible when sharing these lessons throughout the organization, with the goal to prevent future injuries and incidents.
Managing Risk in Development of Natural Gas from Shale
Chevron produces natural gas from shale rock formations in the eastern United States and is conducting exploration programs in Argentina, Canada, China and Eastern Europe. We apply our rigorous safety and environmental standards and processes to these efforts.
The gas naturally occurring in shale rock is trapped in "tight" rock layers and requires different development methods than traditional gas fields. Development requires hydraulic fracturing, an established, safe and proven technology used since the 1960s. Hydraulic fracturing is the process of injecting a mix of water, sand and additives down a well and out through holes in a steel liner to crack the shale rock and encourage gas to flow.
Fracturing is done thousands of feet beneath groundwater aquifers, and Chevron takes steps to protect these aquifers during hydraulic fracturing and over the life of the well. Designing proper wells and control systems is the best form of prevention, and Chevron's wells are designed to protect groundwater for the life of the well. We have robust well designs with multiple layers of steel and cement, and we run pressure tests to ensure the well's integrity.
We protect surface water during natural gas development by safely and responsibly managing fracturing fluids, wastewater and produced water. A mixture of water and sand makes up more than 99 percent of fracturing fluid, with chemical components accounting for the remaining 1 percent. A portion of the water used during fracturing flows back to the surface along with the natural gas being produced. The water is temporarily stored in lined pits until it is either reused in future fracturing jobs or injected into water injection wells permitted especially for that purpose. Well sites are designed to protect the land surface.
In Pennsylvania, we are working to capture and reuse 100 percent of the fracturing flow back and water produced with the natural gas. This reduces our freshwater consumption as well as our need for water trucking, transfer and disposal.
Updated: April 2012