American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2016 - 113

ConventionCoverage: Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners
to have to think before we bring on a
huge new field."
Hamm cited a colloquial definition of
discipline as doing things you don't want
to do when you don't want to do them.
"Being disciplined is hard for a lot of oil
people, but we have been pretty disciplined
in shutting down," he assessed. "Continental still has a good balance sheet. We
could have kept going, but there is no
need to add supply at such a tiny price."
Companies that do not have good balance sheets will have to spend a portion
of the next upswing healing themselves,
he reasoned.
He also said producers needed to seek
efficiencies that would allow them to
compete the next time prices dropped.
"Oil is not going back to $100," Hamm
allowed. "We probably also need to put
in necessary facilities and infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the government is going to
be all over us."
❒

Representative Drew Darby (center), R-San Angelo, accepts TIPRO's Hats Off Award with
congratulations from TIPRO chairman Raymond Welder (left) and Representative Chris
Paddie, R-Marshall. TIPRO bestowed its highest honor on Darby in part to recognize the
House Energy Resources Committee chairman's role in helping pass HB 40, an oil and
gas statewide pre-emption bill.

Industry, Regulators Focus On Safety
SAN ANTONIO-Thinking back to
his initial years of helping organize an
industrywide safety initiative, Rick Ingram
recalled how oil and gas companies once
regarded the U.S. Occupational Safety
& Health Administration.
"Folks looked at OSHA about the
same as they did the Internal Revenue
Service: You don't want them to notice
you and you don't want any contact with
them," described Ingram, co-founder and
chairman of the Service, Transmission,
Exploration & Production Safety (STEPS)
Network. "We now know that with OSHA
it is a handshake or a hammer. Our
industry has been working really hard to
shake OSHA's hand and work with it for
the sake of our workers."
But whether through handshakes or
hammers, OSHA is turning more attention
to oil and gas activity, Ingram indicated,
pointing to a number of new agency regulations and enforcement initiatives (see
related story page 107).
A major reason is statistics that show
jobs in the oil and gas field are five-eight
times more hazardous than the average
occupation, Ingram related in a presentation he gave alongside Association of
Energy Service Companies Executive Director Kenny Jordan on the second day
of the Texas Independent Producers &
Royalty Owners Association's 70th annual
convention.

Later at the conference, Pioneer Energy
Services President and Chief Executive
Officer W. Stacy Locke discussed how
his company had made significant strides
toward improving safety.
OSHA Attention
According to Ingram, fines collected
by OSHA inspectors go into general revenue and not into its coffers, so the
agency's only incentive is worker safety
and health. Ultimately, he related, top

OSHA personnel describe their goal as
making sure safety-conscious companies
face no competitive disadvantages. "Companies that invest in and work hard at
getting people home safely should have
an even playing field," Ingram described.
"It actually should give them an advantage
over companies that do not make safety
and health a priority."
Jordan cited the most recent figures
from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
that:

Pausing before their presentation about oil and gas industry
safety are Rick Ingram (left) of
the Service, Transmission, Exploration & Production Safety
Network, and Kenny Jordan with
the Association of Energy Service Companies. Their remarks at
TIPRO's 70th Annual Cconvention, held Feb. 22-24 in San Antonio, covered topics including
the industry's voluntary health
and safety efforts, as well as
new initiatives from the Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

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