The UK’s offshore oil and gas industry continued to see improvement across a broad range of health and safety indicators last year, according to a key insight into the health and safety landscape published by Oil & Gas UK (OGUK) in October. There were no work-related fatalities recorded in 2017, and the nonfatal-injury rate also continued to decrease across the UK Continental Shelf.
The report gives an overview of the offshore oil and gas industry’s performance in health and safety in 2017 and a summary of activities undertaken by industry groups to protect people working in the sector in 2018.
Key findings were as follows:
Personal Safety
- There were no work-related fatalities in 2017.
- The 3-year rolling average nonfatal-injury rate continued to decrease. This measure is based on the number of over-7-day and specified injuries.
- Fractures were the most common type of reportable injury, followed by strains and sprains.
- The most-common cause of injury was slips, trips, and falls on the same level, 37% of the total.
Process Safety
- The downward trend in reportable incidents continues, with 255 such occurrences in 2017—67% lower than in 2000–01. This is the lowest on record.
- Hydrocarbon releases were the single largest category of reportable incidents (39% of the total), followed by dropped objects (26%).
- The trend in reportable hydrocarbon releases since 1996 remains downward. There are fewer significant releases than in any previous year.
- Major releases have been reduced since 2012 but have plateaued at around two per year in the past few years.
- The installation average safety-critical maintenance backlog continues to decrease year-on-year.
Health
- 110,688 Oil & Gas UK medicals were performed by OGUK-registered doctors in more than 60 countries, up from 99,104 in 2016.
- The most frequent cause of medical evacuations was for suspected cardiac incidents.
- Blood pressure and diabetes were the most common health conditions causing people to fail the offshore medical.