Effective emergency response and medical support at remote and offshore worksites are critical to preventing incidents before they occur and mitigating the impact when they do.
The oil and gas industry has unique and potentially severe health and safety risks, including remote work, gas leaks, harsh weather conditions, machinery malfunctions, fires, and explosions, which necessitate comprehensive safety management protocols as well as preparedness around emergency response.
An emergency response can be defined as any systematic response to an unexpected or dangerous occurrence, where previously-designed procedures are implemented to reduce the impact of an event on people and the environment.
Crucial for offshore and remote safety procedure is response time, as extended response times can result in increased and permanent damage, a higher likelihood of fatalities, and greater distress to those involved.
Solutions for emergency management aim to alleviate the negative impacts of hazards at oil and gas facilities, including major disasters and critical incidents, through mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Preparedness, or the ability to anticipate and respond promptly to emergencies, requires training in emergency response protocols, including evacuation procedures, first aid, and fire suppression techniques, and needs regular drills and simulations to ensure workers can respond effectively.
A key aspect of emergency response planning is conducting thorough risk assessments, which identify potential hazards specific to oil and gas operations and allow operators to implement adequate preventive measures and develop contingency plans.
These plans will cover various scenarios and the required emergency response for them, such as fire outbreaks, equipment failures, hazardous material spills, and personnel injuries.
With a future comprising of lower carbon emissions and higher productivity demands, one of the oil and gas industry’s biggest challenges in the coming years will be maintaining safety while optimising production.
Another challenge will be the retirement of many experienced workers, with about 50 per cent of the global oil and gas workforce concluding their working life over the next 10 years.
The current cohort of workers aged between late-30s and 50s is quite small, so increased emergency response training will become more crucial to prevent safety and productivity from being negatively affected.
Current research and industry practice supports the view that training is a major factor in sustaining and improving safety performance.
A study across different regions of the United States found that the most common methods used by companies to transfer safety knowledge were orientation and training sessions, toolbox talks, informal safety communication among workers, and formal presentations by safety managers.
One major aspect of collaborative learning is feedback and debriefs, which are a type of meeting where team members discuss and learn from recent events where they worked together, such as training.
Well conducted debriefs can improve team effectiveness by 25 per cent across a variety of organisations and settings.
Moreover, new and emerging technologies such as digital monitoring tools, predictive analytics, and advanced sensors are increasingly being used to enhance emergency preparedness and response at offshore oil and gas facilities.
Digital solutions are also hugely advantageous for incident investigations, as they streamline and improve the investigation process by centralising data and making it easier to conduct a comprehensive analysis.
This can be complemented by artificial intelligence, which is able to generate probability indicators for potential catastrophic events, undertake regular safety checks through automated data and smart algorithms, and use predictive models to prevent incidents before they occur.
Fatal incidents increasing globally
The International Association of Oil and Gas Producers’ (IOGP) annual 2022 safety performance report – based on the analysis of 2,579 million work hours across operations in 92 countries – found the fatal accident rate was 71 per cent higher compared to 2021, in conjunction with a 4 per cent decrease in work hours.
This saw the number of fatalities increase from 20 in 2021 to 33 in 2022, the latter of which occurred in 29 separate incidents.
The overall total recordable injury rate was also up by 17 per cent on 2021.
Of the fatalities reported in 2022, 27 per cent were the result of incidents categorised as ‘drilling, workover, well operations’, accounting for nine fatalities in eight separate incidents.
Furthermore, 18 per cent were incidents categorised as ‘struck by not dropped object’ (six fatalities in six separate incidents); 18 per cent were ‘dropped objects’ (six separate incidents); and 18 per cent again categorised as ‘caught in, under or between, excluding dropped objects’, with six fatalities in five separate incidents.
The remainder were in incidents involving ‘lifting, crane, rigging, deck operations’ (four fatalities in four separate incidents) and ‘construction, commissioning, decommissioning’ (four fatalities in three separate incidents) activities.
This increase in fatalities follows a trend demonstrated in the previous year’s results, which saw both fatalities and injuries in the sector increase from 2020 levels.
In its analysis, the IOGP’s Safety Committee noted that COVID-19 effects may still be a factor in the higher fatality rate – possibly manifesting themselves as distractions and general fatigue – and leadership visibility at the front line remained a concern as the industry transitioned out of the pandemic.
Moreover, increasing energy prices and societal needs for energy security had driven an increase in activity levels across the energy sector, increasing hiring rates as well as seeing the reactivation of inactive assets, along with their associated risk.
It was also reported that the current geopolitical situation was clearly one of lesser stability, which may add further stress to the workforce with associated potential for fatigue and distraction events.
A further potential causal factor highlighted was increased task complexity with a less experienced workforce, leading to ineffective control of work and a lack of risk recognition.
Other factors noted include a lack of onsite management engagement and assurance since the beginning of the pandemic, increased administrative workload taking focus away from core safety-critical responsibilities, and continued complexity for contractors from clients’ still misaligned standards and requirements.
The IOGP recommended an enhanced and deliberate focus on activities with potential to cause permanent impairment injuries or fatalities, creating safety awareness at the point of risk, building the safety capacity of the workforce, and contractor engagement.
It said: “[Operators should be] focusing on the highest-risk, safety-critical activities, and reduce front line exposure to more general, non-safety critical business activities.
“In terms of specific focus, incidents with dropped objects are an area of immediate concern.
“The complexity and relevance of the permit to work systems should be challenged and stop and start work authority reinforced.”
