Worker Safety Remains the First Priority for Oil, Gas Companies

Safety is first among every oil and gas company. Regardless of whether an employee works in the field, on a rig, or in a high-rise office, they will be reminded time and time again just how important the safety of every employee is to the company, and to the industry. But as more young workers are hired into the industry, the issue has taken on an increased importance.

Younger workers differ from older ones by having fewer fatalities, but more total injuries and more serious injuries, according to safety and injury incident research from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Human Resources Department Canada, and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

Non-fatal injuries in the oil and gas industry are far lower than average for all private injuries, according to the U.S. Department of Labor and Statistics. That is a remarkable tribute to the emphasis that the energy industry places on safety and safety awareness. A large part of the training that all workers in the oil and gas industry receive is devoted to safety practices and to making employees more safety conscious.

However, the other side of the coin is that fatalities within the industry at the end of 2013 were at the highest level seen since 1992, when the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics first began tracking the data, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. While it is important to note that the rise was due to the increase in workers in the field and on public roadways, and not to a rise in the rate per worker hour, it is still a troubling reminder of how important safety awareness is, both on and off the job.

If there is a bright spot in the data, it is that many of the fatalities and injuries are preventable. For example, vehicle crashes are the single largest cause of fatalities to workers in the oil and gas industry, according to a May 2014 Associated Press story, making up four out of every ten fatalities in the industry. And in about half of the cases, the victims were not wearing seatbelts. So, something as simple as ensuring that all occupants buckle up when traveling in vehicles could significantly lower injury and fatality statistics.

Other driving-related factors, such as drivers working longer shifts and increased traffic congestion in the areas near fracking sites, also played a role in the rise in traffic accidents. Traffic deaths in West Virginia fell 8 percent in 2013 from the previous year, but rose 42 percent in the two most heavily drilled counties of the state amid increased traffic congestion, the Associated Press said. While the figures were different, a similar pattern was seen in North Dakota and in Texas.

Vehicular accidents “are one of the key risk areas of the business,” Shell Oil Co. Marvin Odum acknowledged in an Associated Press article.

While transportation accidents are a chief cause of concern for the industry, there are other safety-related areas that energy companies focus on, as well. Rig workers routinely work long hours in inclement conditions, while using large, heavy equipment. Because the actions of a single employee on a rig can have an effect on the safety of every other rig worker present, it is important for oil and gas companies to ensure that all workers maintain a high level of safety awareness at all times.

USING THE EMR BASELINE TO RATE COMPANIES Beyond the obvious losses when a company suffers a worker injury or fatality, there are myriad issues that must be considered and costs that must be absorbed by companies when safety issues are a factor.

One area that is directly affected by an on-the-job safety incident is the cost of insurance compensation premiums passed on to a company’s workers. Safety experts working for insurance companies use a term called the experience modification rate (EMR). The EMR is a number that helps determine the cost of previous injuries at a company, and the future chances of risk at that company. A baseline number of 1.0 is used as the average for the industry, with insurance premiums for compensation falling as the number drops under the average, and rising when the number moves above the average.

Although insurance compensation premiums can climb rapidly as the EMR rises following a spate of worker injuries, the premiums do not fall back to previous levels as soon as a company’s safety record improves. The reason is that a rise in a company’s EMR number remains with a company for three years. So, worker compensation premiums from insurers remain elevated for that three-year period. A high EMR puts a company at a competitive disadvantage, so every company seeks to lower its EMR number as much as possible.

DIRECT, INDIRECT COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH WORKER INJURIES Besides the very real and direct costs of an injury claim, companies are affected in other ways. These indirect costs can be from four to ten times as much as the direct costs attributed with the injury.

While an injured employee is recovering, the company incurs the loss of that company’s productivity. Depending on how serious the injury is, and how critical the job is, an employee from another area may have to temporarily replace the injured employee, costing the company both time and money. There is also administration time as the company fills out the necessary paperwork. And at times, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will investigate the circumstances of the accident, which can cost the company a significant loss of productivity over time.

However, perhaps the most important costs for a company are those associated with employee morale, the company’s reputation and media attention. Regardless of how lacking in culpability a company is, and how thorough and well-intended a company’s safety program is, the court of public opinion following negative media attention can be unforgiving.

Estimates regarding the cost of direct and indirect costs on all companies in the United States are upwards of $170 billion a year, according to EHS Today, an occupational safety and health, regulatory, environmental management and risk management website.

With so much at stake regarding direct and indirect losses from safety incidents, there is little wonder that all companies seek to prevent worker injuries and fatalities. It has also prompted various groups to study the psychology of workplace safety. Organizations such as EHS Today have raised questions such as whether safety leadership is innate or whether it is something that can be developed, and whether the concept of safety is something that can be led.

The goal in safety is not to seek to fail less, but to not fail at all. Reducing safety-related injuries and deaths is tantamount to failing less. Eliminating safety-related injuries and deaths must be the goal, according to Terry L. Mathis, founder and CEO of ProAct Safety – a company that was created to help organizations achieve and sustain safety excellence – in EHS Today.

As for the question of whether safety is learned or innate, some people seem to be more safety-conscious than most, just as some people seem more accident-prone. However, true safety leaders appear to be developed, not born, Joe Wheatley, corporate director of risk management and EHS Affairs for EnPro Industries Inc, told EHS Today.

Regardless of the amount of media attention generated by a company’s performance in other areas, leaders in the safety arena see the issue as being the most important of any company’s challenges, ranking “equally as important as quality and production,” Wheatley said.

ASSESSING RISKS OF POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES As a response to the need for greater safety awareness among oil and gas workers, a pre-employment assessment company has recently added a new competency cluster to its assessments for oil and gas companies.

SkillSurvey, the company that invented a confidential reference checking assessment, Pre-Hire 360, to help companies evaluate and screen the relevant skill levels and experience of prospective employees early in the hiring process, has added a new “Commitment to Workplace Health and Safety” cluster for its oil and gas company customers. The new safety cluster helps these companies identify the candidates that have demonstrated a commitment to workplace safety in the past, that past on-the-job behavior is the most accurate predictor of future behavior.

“This new safety cluster will help hiring managers identify whether a candidate cares about safety on the job, based on assessments from prior co-workers and managers – the most important indicator there is,” Ray Bixler, president and CEO of SkillSurvey, Inc., told PRWeb.

Energy companies are competing for the best new workers, and they have to move quickly. However, hiring a worker who has a questionable safety record can be a very expensive proposition. SkillSurvey’s report with feedback on a prospective employee is often provided to the client company within a day or two, allowing the company to evaluate the safety record before an offer is made, thus helping the hiring company to minimize its risks.

“Safety should be a key focus even before a candidate is hired. Companies spend large sums on training and recovery efforts and can significantly reduce these costs by hiring candidates with a zero-tolerance mindset,” Marzena Quinn, product director for the energy market at SkillSurvey, told Rigzone.

IMPROVING SAFETY STATISTICS WITH LEADERSHIP While having employees with an awareness of safety is a necessary first step in reducing accidents, it is important to have an effective strategy and an effective leader. The findings of research into safety show that an uninvolved and passive safety leadership style has negative impacts “on employee safety compliance and safety participation behavior,” according to Routledge, an academic publisher in the humanities and social sciences.

Being an active and effective safety leader means that those assigned with promoting safety must do so constantly, not occasionally or periodically. When safety leaders are consistent and predictable in their approach to safety, and have an active engagement with other employees about safety and always make it a priority, they are more effective in developing the safety awareness of other employees, Routledge said.

Effective safety leadership is made possible by taking four steps, Mathis said. Developing the proper strategy is necessary. A strategy should focus safety efforts on particular risks or precautions, rather than simply declaring a goal of reducing accident rates. Expectations must be set, and there must be consistency and follow-up regarding the expectations. Safety leaders must visibly care about creating the teamwork necessary to instill a culture of safety awareness in order to prompt other employees to “buy into” the idea of safety. And finally, Mathis said, the message of safety must be strengthened by personal example.

“Safety First” discourages personal responsibility. Is it reasonable to assume that someone would hire you to work in a hazardous environment, and then tell you that nothing is more important to them than your personal safety? Of course not.

Difficult and dangerous jobs are accomplished by people who are willing to assume risk – and the assumption of that risk must come before anything else. Lawyers and insurance adjusters and government agencies have altered that simple equation by perpetuating the belief that your employer might actually care about your safety more than you. That’s dangerous, in my opinion, (even if it’s sometimes true.)

Mitigating risk makes good financial sense, in the same way that wearing a harness at 600 feet makes good common sense. But telling an employee that his Safety comes before everything else sends a mixed and somewhat suspicious message.

The fact is, companies don’t go out of business when people get hurt. (Well, rarely.) They go out of business when they run out of money. (Bailouts notwithstanding.)

Wouldn’t it be more honest, (and possibly more effective) for a boss to say to an employee, “Look Joe, this is a business and if you get hurt on the job, our insurance premiums will go through the roof. Productivity will suffer. OSHA will fine us or maybe shut us down. Our profit and your personal safety happen to be tied together, but don’t be confused by that coincidence. Our motivation is profit. Your motivation is a paycheck. We’re not your parents and you’re not a child. Let’s be clear about why we’re each here and let’s not mess that up with a careless and stupid injury.”

- Mike Rowe

Music to my ears! I’m exhausted with being a nanny to a bunch of people who have turned safety meetings and obsession into a tool to avoid and delay work. We have spent millions of dollars on the most simple and stupid “hazards”. If a buzz saw will cut you don’t put your hand in it. If a pipe is overhead and you may bump your head on it DUCK and don’t be stupid.

It takes hours to drag our way through the ordeals of detailed pre job meetings that probably run out of real value in the first few minutes.

I got the connection between profitability, my job and safety about 4 decades ago. You break stuff and get hurt it costs money and you may not work again for one reason or another.

The whole safety thing has become a demonstration of “how much someone cares”. Get the job done right, don’t waste time, don’t break stuff and safety will be taken care of.

Thank you for posting this article thackney. Due to some of the comments on this thread I feel a need to chime in. Unfortunately the title of this article is dead on accurate at the BEGINNING of some projects, not necessarily through completion though. The story I relate occurred right there in your neck of the woods the first two weeks of February.

I was asked to stand in for a man that had to take time off for a family emergency. I was told it would be about a month. I agreed. The position was third party safety rep. for new lay pipe from Beaumont to Baytown TX. I got a phone call from the project Chief to respond to a vehicle accident on the ROW in Anahuac. When I got on site the safety man for the General Contractor was already there taking pics and getting employee statements. I instructed the GC rep. to send his preliminary report to me prior to submission the client. I was due to meet with the Chief in Beaumont the next morning but called and told him I would not be there and was going back out onsite.

What I had observed that Friday afternoon seemed really out of order. Appr. 50 or more men walking around like zombies, expressionless beaten down. The next morning was no different. Same guys, same zombies. I started doing one on one interviews. Five different contract companies were there. I was told over and over that they were not being allowed time to rest. To verify, I called the onsite inspectors to the side as a group and asked them what their work hours were. One man piped up then the others chimed in and backed him up. They had been working 18 hour days 7 days a week since Thanksgiving because two deadlines had been missed. As you might imagine that did not go over well with me. I told the inspectors that my next course of action would probably cost me my job (and it did).

I called the Chief and had him meet me in Beaumont after lunch that Saturday. After I said what I had to say he let me know that he was fully aware of the problem but that the GC was not going to change the work hours. I told him that was a damn shame and left, went back to the motel and started the calls and emails. I was on the phone and computer till almost midnight with the client, my company and the GC safety rep.

On Sunday morning a memo had been issued by the GC, signed by two vice-presidents that any shift lasting more than 13 hours had to be pre-approved by the corporate office and that the men were to be released at lunch for the rest of the day. The next morning, Monday, the Chief called me and said that I could go ahead and de-mobe. The guy I replaced would be back.

The bottom line folks is this: If Safety is nothing but a priority, know for a surety that priorities change. Companies are in business to make money as they should be and employees will work like this for the paychecks. For me, safety is a VALUE, not a priority. It like being Pro-Life. That will never change. Believe it or not, I have worked for a few companies where safety was a value but they are few and far between. Thank you to any that take time to read this.

I can relate somewhat. I’ve worked a couple jobs of 12 hr days 7 days a week. When overseas, living on the job site it was easy. I did about six months of that in Houston, driving 45~60 minutes each way. The later half bumped up to 13 hrs to coordinate with the night shift.

I was a lead engineer and one of our designers had a commute that put her on the same section of feeder road off a highway driving the same direction due to a U-turn to get home quickest. One morning, she called me and said she had pulled over because she could not remember if she was going to work or from work. If I would just tell her which, she said she would be fine.

I wouldn’t tell, except that she had to go home and not return until the next day. If she showed up today (she was going to work) I would not sign her time sheet.

At first she was mad because I wouldn’t answer her question. It was winter and the nights were long enough even down here that we drove to and from work in the dark.

I cannot begin to imagine doing 18 hr days past a week or two. I’ve done turn-arounds and that happens then, but not any lasting work.

Most clients I know would take working such hours a sign of the contractor was bad enough they couldn’t get people to work for them. Sadly, not enough would view it that way.

There was no way I could tell her to come to work while she was in that daze. I offered to leave the plant and come to her and drive her home but she wouldn’t give me enough info to find her.

The next day she did thank me.

We tried to find time for folks to take off after that, but it was hard.

It was an emergency rebuild of a Methanol Plant after a major explosion. Engineering/Design/Construction 24/7 for about six months.

The plant had several major explosions in the past. The control room was in the middle of the plant. We went out ~10’ and built 18” thick heavily re-enforced blast walls with 10’ thick bases to prevent them from overturning.

A vessel ~60’ tall x 12’ diameter and 1.5” wall thickness had mostly gone to mostly shrapnel shredding many items in the plant. Some pieces landed 1,500’ away and a few traveled through occupied buildings without any real injury.

It was hard to constantly look at the damage and see the massive protections we were putting in place and not start thinking harder about safety.

You said it, overseas 12 hour days are not easy but a breeze compared to the same in this SH.

45 to 60 minutes commute is a short one these days. I just spent 1.5 hours getting from one office to another. I can’t count the number of times I used to drive home just to go to bed for a bit and wondered why I left work at all. Not doing it anymore.

You have one bucket for money and one bucket for crap. When either one gets full you go home. I used to think that the money bucket had to be close to full.... it doesn’t. Everything is relative.

overseas 12 hour days are not easy

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For me the hours were not bad. We lived on site, 5 minutes maybe to walk to the office, 10 minutes to walk to the plant gate.

Somebody else cleaned, cooked, washed our clothes, did the truck maintenance, etc.

The problem was 60 miles from the nearest paved road, and probably 100 miles to the nearest flush toilet. I was in Yemen on the south side of the Rub’ al Khali (empty quarter) a place so barren that until they found oil, the countries on either side really didn’t care where the border was claimed to be, just somewhere inside that mess of nothing.

Most of the time you are expat you are safer than you are at home. LIfe is simple, life is good. Like working offshore. All you gotta do is your job. Just about everything else is taken care of.

Overseas I usually ended up the team manager so I had duties of keeping the staff houses and kitchen. I’d find a camp manager who first knew what Clorox was. Complaints about food resulted in everyone bringing their favorite recipes from home and teaching the cook how to make it if necessary. Where quality of food is concerned, money solves everything and it is a cheap investment. An army travels on its stomach.

Always provide people a competitive wage and all they need to do the job right. That way there can be no excuses for not giving it their best and you never have to back down when you let someone go who does not give their best.

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