Enabling Safer Offshore Energy Operations: Current Advances in Safety and Risk Assessment

Syeda Zohra Halim completed her PhD in Chemical Engineering in Spring 2019 with Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center at Texas A&M University.  Her research focused on developing a model for assessing cumulative risk arising from impaired barriers in offshore oil and gas facilities. In her work, she identified and analyzed organizational issues that contribute to increased risk and utilized Hierarchical Bayesian Analysis to show how such contributors can be quantified and brought together with technical factors to understand their dynamic holistic effect on risk.

A keen supporter of promoting process safety, Zohra has actively been involved in multiple process safety related projects alongside her research work. Such projects include developing a PSM implementation plan for an international industrial corporation, analyzing BSEE incident investigation databases to determine leading causes behind incidents in offshore oil and gas facilities, developing process safety course materials for an international university, working in collaboration with IChemE to develop a roadmap for process safety for the 21st century and writing a book chapter on process safety for petroleum engineering students. She also works as a team member with the Ocean Energy Safety Institute (OESI) and volunteers frequently in their forums and workshops. Zohra has won the Texas Sea Grant Special Award, Lamiya Zahin Memorial Safety Scholarship and has held first position thrice at the Annual MKOPSC Poster Competition. She was elected Media Chair of the Chemical Engineering Graduate Students’ Association (ChEGSA).

Before coming to Texas A&M University, Zohra completed her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).  

Retired Navy Captain Jim Pettigrew is the Principal Investigator and Director of Operations for the Ocean Energy Safety Institute (OESI). A partnership between Texas A&M University, University of Houston, and University of Texas – Austin; OESI provides a forum for dialogue, shared learning and cooperative research among academia, government, industry and other non-governmental organizations. OESI’s focus is offshore-related technologies and activities that help ensure safer and environmentally responsible offshore operations. Jim assumed the position of Director in May 2014, and Principal Investigator in December 2018.

Throughout his three decades in the Navy, Pettigrew worked predominantly in operational oceanography, surface warfare and information warfare; managing and mitigating risk at all levels of operations. He served most recently as Chief of Staff for the Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command where he was responsible for the direction and leadership of a team of 150 people, executing a $300 million annual budget, the operations of 4,000 personnel worldwide, the nation's Master Clock, two world-class supercomputing facilities, and six military Oceanographic Survey Ships. He also had the privilege and honor of serving as the Commanding Officer for the Navy’s Global Atmospheric and Ocean Modeling Supercomputing Center (Fleet Numerical, in Monterey, CA) and as the Commanding Officer for the Navy’s only forward deployed Operational Oceanography support center in Yokosuka, Japan. He served twice in the Pentagon and was Joint-qualified serving with the U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs.

Pettigrew received his Masters of Science in Physical Oceanography and Meteorology from the Naval Postgraduate School, and received his Bachelors of Science in Ocean Engineering from Texas A&M University.