Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised

This episode explores why so many subsurface AI projects fail to move beyond the prototype stage and what it takes to successfully deploy AI in real-world workflows. Rather than building custom applications that require significant maintenance and specialized expertise, many organizations are finding greater success with platform-based solutions that already provide secure data access, scalable analytics, and trusted workflows. The discussion also separates genuine AI value from industry hype, highlighting practical use cases across interpretation, field development, and production analytics. Through examples from operators, investors, and consultants, the episode demonstrates how proven platforms can accelerate AI adoption and deliver results faster.
 
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In this Insights episode of the Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised podcast, downstream editor and lead reporter Robert Brelsford concludes the conversation on process safety management with Joe Barnes, principal of Barnes’ Engineering Consultants and a veteran oil and gas operations, maintenance, reliability, and major-projects leader with more than 30 years of industry experience.

Barnes outlines five priorities for senior leaders and plant managers: maintaining strong operating procedures and management-of-change practices; routinely auditing lockout/tagout procedures; providing effective operator and supervisor training; and preventing deferred maintenance, particularly on critical equipment. He also emphasizes the importance of leadership visibility in the field, encouraging executives and plant managers to regularly engage with operating personnel and understand the condition of equipment and processes firsthand.

During the conversation, Robert and Joe examine the tension between profitability, market pressures, and the investments required to operate safely. Barnes explains why strong financial performance should support investment in equipment, maintenance, training, and people rather than encourage short-term decisions that could increase risk. He also discusses how management should evaluate efficiency measures, staffing changes, maintenance deferrals, turnaround modifications, and capital reductions while keeping process and personal safety central to decision-making.

The two consider how facilities can demonstrate that process safety systems are working in practice through dedicated internal audits, periodic third-party reviews, corrective-action follow-through, and the use of real-world incident scenarios in operator training. Barnes explains how investigation findings can be converted into case-based exercises that help workers recognize hazards, assess risks, and develop the right responses before returning to the field. He also recommends reviewing procedures, emergency-response plans, and process hazards periodically to help ensure they remain current and effective.

Robert and Joe further explore how leaders can create an environment in which employees and contractors feel comfortable reporting weak signals, near misses, and other bad news. Barnes argues that management must investigate reported concerns, respond visibly, and demonstrate that risk identification leads to action. He outlines immediate steps for strengthening process safety culture, including communicating clear and unwavering expectations, protecting critical maintenance, auditing what matters, rewarding the right behaviors, and improving workers’ understanding of process limits.

Barnes closes by emphasizing the importance of visible and consistent leadership, stronger communication of lessons between facilities, and treating process safety as a core operating requirement rather than a temporary investment. He also discusses the role of Barnes’ Engineering Consultants in developing training modules based on major incidents and offers a final reminder that technology and artificial intelligence can improve operations, but human care, judgment, and decision-making remain essential to preventing major incidents.

Reference
Elevating process safety above short-term profits ensures sustainable, long-term resilience, Joe Barnes, Barnes’ Engineering Consultants.

About our guest
Joe Barnes is principal of Barnes’ Engineering Consultants and a veteran oil and gas operations, maintenance, reliability, and major-projects leader with more than 30 years of industry experience. Barnes can be reached on his business mobile at (713) 392-7301.

Editor's Note: This is Part II of a two-part conversation. Check here for Part I.

Editor's Note: The conversation is broken down into two episodes. Listen today to Part I and stay tuned for Part II. 

 

In this Insights episode of the Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised podcast, downstream editor and lead reporter Robert Brelsford talks with Joe Barnes, principal of Barnes’ Engineering Consultants and a veteran oil and gas operations, maintenance, reliability, and major-projects leader with more than 30 years of industry experience.

Barnes, who spent roughly half of his career in refining and half in exploration and production, discusses why process safety management must remain a central concern for everyone working in oil and gas—not only safety professionals. Drawing on his experience with a major refinery accident and the aftermath of a separate major offshore incident, Barnes explains why good intentions are not enough to prevent major incidents, particularly in times when the potential for high margins could tempt operator’s into promoting maximized production over execution of maintenance on processing and production installations to ensure safe and reliable operations.

During the conversation, Robert and Joe examine recurring root causes identified through Barnes’ review of process-safety incidents dating back to the mid-1980s, including absence of  leadership, poor communication, inadequate risk identification and mitigation, aging equipment, deferred maintenance, workforce turnover, and the loss of experienced personnel. They also discuss why the industry has sometimes failed to consistently share and apply lessons from previous incidents, particularly when investigation findings are not widely accessible.

The two consider the difference between personal safety and process safety metrics, the warning signs that preceded the 2005 BP Texas City refinery explosion, and the role of management of change (MOC) in evaluating staffing, maintenance, turnaround, efficiency, and capital-reduction decisions. Barnes also outlines the questions boards and executive leaders should be asking to ensure that process safety remains a business priority across economic cycles.

Robert and Joe further explore how refineries can use past incident scenarios as practical training tools, strengthen external oversight and auditing, encourage employees and contractors to report weak signals and near misses, and build a process-safety culture that rewards risk identification and mitigation. Barnes closes with recommendations for protecting critical maintenance, communicating expectations clearly, auditing what matters, and keeping people at the center of process safety decision-making.

Offshore energy infrastructure faces an increasingly complex mix of cyber and physical security threats as digitalization, remote operations, and geopolitical tensions reshape the risk landscape.

In this Insights episode of the Oil & Gas Journal ReEnterprised podcast, OGJ Upstream Editor Alex Procyk discusses how offshore installations are becoming targets for ransomware attacks, navigation-system interference, supply-chain compromise, and physical sabotage.

There is a growing shift from opportunistic cybercrime toward state-linked and organized criminal actors seeking long-term access to critical infrastructure. As operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) systems become more interconnected, attackers are increasingly exploiting remote access pathways to move from corporate networks into critical operational systems.

Traditional perimeter-based security models are proving inadequate for modern offshore operations and outlines emerging approaches such as cyber-informed engineering, OT-focused monitoring, micro-segmentation, defense-in-depth strategies, and integrated cyber-physical security frameworks designed to improve resilience across offshore platforms, vessels, ports, and subsea infrastructure. Cyber-informed engineering and OT-native security controls are emerging as key defensive strategies.

References
Offshore environments present unique security risks, Oil & Gas Journal, Members Only, Alex Procyk, Aug. 5, 2026.

OTC-36764-MS
Securing Offshore Ecosystems Against Cyber and Sabotage Threats

OTC-36839-MS
Access Management and Operational Security in Critical Infrastructure: A Longitudinal Evaluation of Cyber and Physical Security Breaches in Marine Environments

OTC-36860-MS
Cyber-Informed Security Architecture for Offshore Energy and Maritime OT Systems

OTC-36928-MS
Zero-Day Threat: The Silent Cyber War on Energy Infrastructure

OTC-37012-MS
Remote Operations for Autonomous Offshore Facilities: Design, Testing and Independent Validation of Secure and Robust Automation

This episode is sponsored by Bishopric Industries.