Natural Disasters | #ECC2023 | Energy Continuity Conference

Natural Disasters & Contingency Plans

From hurricanes, to tornados, wildfires, freezes and floods, mother nature is going to battle against you and your business. The proper precautions and contingency plans can save lives and property. A good plan also makes it easier to get things up and running in the aftermath.

Drawing up a disaster contingency plan can seem overwhelming. Looking at the recent nightmare of Texas wildfires or the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey and the freeze of 2021, it may feel pointless to think about contingency planning. You may be thinking, “What can I do to stop mother nature herself?” but steps can and should be taken to prepare.

First, pinpoint what sort of disasters you are most likely to deal with, you know your business better than anyone else. Identify the risks and list them out. For instance, in a flood zone, elevating your property above normal flood levels can protect your premises from disaster.

Pre-planned methods of communication are vital for holding things together. Have contact information for everyone: employees, managers, customers, and family, even their members. Make plans for what to do if the Internet or phone service is out. Keep in mind how vulnerable paper and critical electronics are, and make sure to have plans in place for when you return to the office.

Preserving your people and assets makes it possible to reopen your doors quickly. Make plans for resuming business activity too. Can you arrange to set up at another site, work remote or from a cloud server?  Is there a way to get inventory shipped in to an alternate location? It’s much easier to work this out in advance than when the catastrophe happens.

Oil & Gas Global Network “OGGN”

Texas Quality Assurance and the #QualityMatters podcast

Houston Young Professionals Network

Turnaround Manager | #ECC2023 | Energy Continuity Conference

Turnaround Manager

Managing a turnaround process is not always easy, but its possible. There are many different skills involved in this process and the success of the turnaround process depends on the people and management working on it. If you are the person who oversees the execution of the turnaround process, then there are some things you should know, especially when the project does not go as planned.

Human resources and workplace instability can be the Achilles heel of the project. Cost is considered the biggest right, but the costing process of a turnaround can be modeled using a bell curve and other commonly available tools and techniques. Initially, specialty skills are brought up slowly as units or vessels are opened and shut down. Towards the end of the turnaround process, the specialty skills start to diminish. Managers should review staffing levels frequently against schedule requirements and demobilize excess manpower to control costs.  Manpower shortage, and shortage of properly skilled and trained manpower can run the project off course quickly. As a rule, turnaround managers should have a contingency budget that is 10% higher than the budgeted amount. 

A critical component of turnaround management is the ability to communicate well and manage the scope. In fact, there are several common challenges that arise when managing a turnaround. The most difficult problem to overcome is the lack of dialogue between management and field supervisors. Senior management might allow major jobs to be added late. This presents an unacceptable risk to the project. Identifying problems and resolving them as early as possible is vital to the success of a turnaround.

Oil & Gas Global Network “OGGN”

Texas Quality Assurance and the #QualityMatters podcast

Houston Young Professionals Network

Welcome to the Energy Continuity Conference | Business Recovery – Safety – Education

The Energy Continuity Conference is a unique opportunity, unlike anything the industry has seen before, to share learn and build on Business Recovery – Safety – Education practices to respond when disaster strikes. When we think disaster, we commonly think of a hurricane or flood or some other natural disaster (especially here on the Gulf Coast in the Great Houston area), but disaster comes in many shapes and forms. This is what is so incredibly exciting about the Energy Continuity Conference we’ll be tackling the tough issues of workplace instability that have arisen in recent years, physical safety, cybersecurity and so much more.

We’ll be going beyond what most conferences you have seen do. First, our speakers. Speakers for the ECC 2023 will be selected from our pool of industry leading product and service providers. Even better, the speakers are selected on industry experience, knowledge and understanding of the topic. Unlike other conference, this is not the pay to play and pay more to play more model. For our attendees who are looking to dig deeper and learn more, we will providing an opportunity for those with a VIP ticket for small group discussion with the speaker(s) of their choice in dedicated break out sessions.

Leading up to the conference, keep an eye on the ECC Blog here, we’ll be posting helpful articles related to business continuity, contingency planning, risk assessment and planning for when (not if) disaster strikes. Even if you don’t attend the event, there will still be providing you with helpful information. Be sure to check back regularly for more information.

For those of you with tickets for entry, we will be providing you with samples of procedures, checklists, contingency plans and more. After a day of learning and networking, we want to make certain you are ready to go back and put new plans in place, make improvements to your processes and be prepared better than ever before.

A special thank you to our partners putting on this event:

Oil & Gas Global Network “OGGN”

Texas Quality Assurance and the #QualityMatters podcast

Houston Young Professionals Network