Oil and gas industry safety

Oil and gas industry safety
Oil and gas is the lifeblood of the economy in Qatar. In fact, Qatar has the third-largest natural gas reserve in the world and is the number one exporter of natural gas in the world. Roughly 70% of Qatar’s revenue comes from selling and trading its oil and gas resources. In this blog post, we explore the oil and gas industry in Qatar in more detail and analyse the measures put in place to maintain safety in the industry.
The largest oil field in Qatar is the Durkan Field, an on-shore oil field which was first drilled in the late 1930s. Although the Durkan Field is on-shore, the majority of Qatar’s oil production sites are off-shore. In 2017, Qatar reported that there were 25.5 billion barrels of oil within its reserve and claimed they were producing 1.9 million barrels of oil per day. With both on and off-shore sites, the oil and gas industry in Qatar faces unique security risks, just some of which are outlined below…
• Surveillance
Surveillance is required both to ensure employees are safe at all times and to ensure no unauthorised individuals or vehicles are trying to gain access to the oil field.
• Communication
As shown by the 2011 BP oil spill, an accident within an oil field can have fatal consequences. Efficient communication systems are needed within oil fields to maintain employee safety and to ensure potential problems are navigated efficiently and quickly.
• Air traffic management
No planes, boats or cars should be authorised and given access to the oil field unless strictly necessary. Air traffic management solutions, such as radar and sonar will help to identify and mitigate all potential transport issues.
The relationship between the Qatar government and the oil and gas industry
The oil and gas industry within Qatar dominates more than 85% of the country’s export profit and accounts for 60% of its gross domestic product. Although the oil and gas industry has proven to be consistently profitable for Qatar, in 2017 the government decided to diversify its economic portfolio to ensure the country isn’t completely reliant on fossil fuels.
In 2018, The state-owned petroleum country, Qatar Petroleum, merged with the gas operating companies Qatargas and RasGas, streamlining the oil and gas industry within Qatar. This successful merger was estimated to save the country roughly £2 billion Qatari riyals. Now operating solely under the name Qatargas, the company handles over 77 million tonnes of oil and gas annually and predominately sells its products via joint venture arrangements with oil companies around the globe.
Bayanat Engineering and the oil and gas industry
Bayanat Engineering is proud to serve the oil and gas industry in Qatar. We provide innovative and dependable security solutions that help the oil and gas industry operate safely. From installing air traffic management automation systems to help monitor the security of an oil field to providing human body temperature scans to ensure employees on the oil field are healthy, we provide a complete range of oil and gas security solutions.
To learn more about the security solutions Bayanat Engineering can provide in Qatar, do not hesitate to contact us today.