Oilfield safety culture has come a long way since the ground breaking recommendations of the 1990 Cullin Report that followed the Piper Alpha disaster. But safety today is bogged down in a top-down dictatorial mentality which is not keeping up with how increasing systems automation and complexity is affecting the needs of our workers.
In 2013, IOGP published IOGP 452, Shaping safety culture through safety leadership. The aim was to raise awareness among senior figures in the oil and gas industry of the way their behaviors shape ‘safety culture.’
The recent flood of hundreds of new rigs, boats and barges came with an equally big flood of new rig managers, many of whom lacked the experience and self-confidence to fight the safety fascists- a weakness which is costing offshore contractors millions.
As federal safety officials responded Friday to a death on a Gulf of Mexico oil rig, the agency in charge of oil-rig safety received a rebuke from a congressional watchdog office that found poor management has caused it to fail in its most basic functions.
Laws and regulations governing the refining and petrochemicals industries largely exist to protect people and the environment, said John Carroll, vice president of compliance services with the crisis and emergency management consultancy Witt O'Brien's, LLC.
Oil and gas companies are seeking new and innovative ways to further reduce costs while maintaining safety and efficiency.
Automated pipe handling systems are not new, but the size and the weight of the equipment is one area needing to be addressed; storing something heavy at the top of a rig can cause problems when the rig is moved.
“Now is the time to train. When the industry rebounds, those employees will be ready” said Woody Hill, vice president, safety services at Texas Mutual Insurance Co.
Lyndolyn Pervier, director of workforce continuing education at Midland College, agreed.
Transparency Market Research’s report, titled “Oil and Gas Automation Market – Global Industry Analysis, Market Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Growth and Forecast 2019,” marks the effort to analyze the effects and needs of automation in the oil and gas sector.
Two government health and safety agencies have joined forces to produce a new hazard alert on the danger facing oil and gas industry workers who manually gauge or sample fluids on production and flowback tanks.
A new hazard alert from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health identifies health and safety risks to oil and gas industry workers who manually gauge or sample fluids on production and flowback tanks.