American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2015 - 84

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STORY NUMBER: 12-9M/H2/P4-C4

SpecialReport: Insurance Update

Training, Technology Increase Safety
By Colter Cookson

In an ideal world, blowouts, leaks,
fires and worker injuries on onshore and
offshore assets would be banished to the
history books. But despite a tremendous
effort by professionals and organizations
across the upstream industry, these events
still can occur. In fact, the most recent
edition of Marsh's list of the 100 most
expensive losses in the hydrocarbon industry during the past 40 years shows 35
percent of the total occurring within the
past 10 years. The recent entries include
four upstream events between 2011 and
2013.
While completely eliminating risk is
impossible-even with oil and gas companies committed to safety as job one-
the industry continues to develop and
implement procedures, equipment and
best practices to minimize the occurrence
of health, safety and environmental incidents.

84 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

Training plays a key role in that effort,
industry experts indicate. They say new
standards and information delivery methods
are helping workers across the globe access
and master techniques for maintaining
well control. Meanwhile, trainers are looking for more effective ways to teach the
hazard awareness and mitigation skills
that are crucial to minimizing injuries.
Recognizing that vehicle accidents are
the leading cause of injuries in the oil
and gas industry, many of these trainers
are emphasizing the importance of driver
safety. Their efforts have been augmented
by increasingly affordable cameras designed to eliminate blind spots and manage
driver fatigue.
In evaluating safety, the industry needs
to look not only at the risk to individual
workers, but also at the chance of major
hazard events arising from process safety
impairments, such as loss of containment,
suggests Mike Neill, the president of
Petrotechnics USA. "These events do not

happen often, but they have high consequences," he observes.
In all but the rarest cases, Neill says
accidents are preventable. "They are not
unpredictable events," he emphasizes.
"The industry has anticipated the root
causes and implemented multiple physical
and procedural barriers to prevent incidents, but these barriers can fail or prove
inadequate."
Neill says the accidents on Marsh's
list reflect an unfortunately reality. "Over
time, process safety barriers deteriorate,"
he warns. "It takes constant vigilance to
make sure the barriers are strong enough
to do the job expected of them. Corrosion
is one of the biggest threats to physical
barriers, but even without it, elastomers
perish and need to be replaced, lubricants
need to be reapplied, sensors need to be
recalibrated periodically, and shutdown
valves need to be stroked."
Finding the time to perform necessary
maintenance can be difficult, especially
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2015

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