Safety

Workers’ Memorial Day: Remembering the Dead, Fighting for the Living

28 April is Workers’ Memorial Day, an international day of remembrance for the colleagues, family, and friends who have lost their lives while performing their jobs. It is also a day to take stock of where we stand on health and safety in the workplace.

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For more than 30 years, 28 April has been designated as Workers’ Memorial Day, an international day of remembrance for the colleagues, family, and friends who have lost their lives while performing their jobs. It is also a day to take stock of where we stand on health and safety in the workplace.

The oil and gas industry has made tremendous improvements in health and safety during the past 30 years and continues to pursue innovative approaches to reduce risk further. Health, safety, and environment (HSE) professionals can be proud of their contributions in leading this improvement and in creating a culture in which safety is everyone’s business and is integrated deeply in every aspect of the industry.

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is home to a thriving 2,000-member HSE and Sustainability (HSES) discipline, along with six other technical disciplines with whom the HSES discipline increasingly engages to integrate safety practices better. Every day, HSE professionals are building better safeguards, improving operational processes, and using data analytics to understand health and safety risks better. Organizational cultures are continually evolving to prioritize safety, and the leadership remains consistent with that evolving culture. HSE practitioners challenge themselves not to be satisfied until we get to zero. They research the psychology behind unsafe behaviors and innovate new approaches to human-factors engineering. Every day, they take this complex field, often dry and technical, and render it engaging and accessible to everyone, all with a view to saving lives and preserving wellbeing.

Those in the discipline also sometimes act as historians to remind everybody of important events that shaped the industry. Last week, SPE’s HSES Advisory Committee held its regular meeting. It was on 20 April, the 10th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon loss. The committee shared a minute of silence to honor the 11 men who lost their lives in that terrible accident and then discussed a proposal to create a memorial for all workers who have lost their lives offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Work has now started on that project, which is being led by Ken Arnold, the president of K. Arnold Consulting and senior technical adviser for WorleyParsons. 

This year, the key theme for 28 April is, of course, COVID-19 and how to slow and ultimately stop the pandemic that brought the world to a juddering half just more than 2 months ago.

The oil and gas industry has been a leader in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; it implemented life-saving controls 2 weeks before the World Health Organization declared the disease a pandemic, and it swiftly implemented measures in offshore and land-based operations that billions now are applying from their homes around the world. The world will be living with this virus and managing the risks of its presence in daily lives in daily operations for some time. Capacity is building strongly thanks to expertise inside and close to the industry developing and deploying new best practices and changing the parameters of what is necessary to produce operational excellence, including the once taboo topic of mental health now coming to the forefront. 

The industry is also in what has been called a “double perfect storm”—pandemic restrictions multiplied by the oversupply of oil and the precipitous decline in demand because of arrested economic activity. Now more than ever, HSE practitioners need to maintain their vigilance and leverage their skills as everyone faces a combination of risks and distractions. The COVID-19 disease risk, the effects of lockdown on families, industry layoffs, and other curtailments and containments of activity all are challenging the industry to keep its eyes on safety practices and not to compromise. 

SPE is holding regular webinars and live broadcasts convening members and friends in engagements with voices of authority. Take some time to listen to the playbacks and consider what you can do to keep yourself and your colleagues safe and well. 

How Oil and Gas Operations Are Managing COVID-19

At a Crossroad—Today’s Energy Workforce

Take some time to remember Macondo and other devasting incidents the industry has suffered. JPT and the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers have produced thoughtful pieces to present what has been learned and what is yet to be learned.

Post-Macondo Focus on Safety

Macondo—10 years on

Take the time to review the IOGP Life Saving Rules program, sobering yet engaging material focusing on incidents causing fatalities that are generally well understood yet continue to occur.

Join the SPE community of HSE and sustainability professionals. Work with discipline leaders through technical sections, conferences, workshops, and media channels. All oil and gas professionals who care about HSE and sustainability are welcome.