Page 338 - Drilling Technology in Nontechnical Language

14

SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL

ISSUES

Overview

Management of safety is of fundamental importance to the oil
industry. Over the years, systems have been developed to ensure a safe
working environment for the people who work at the wellsite. Equipment,
training, practices, and procedures are used to reduce risk to a level that
is considered as low as reasonably practical (ALARP). In addition, many
governments have become involved as a result of incidents that have
occurred. In some cases, such as the Piper Alpha disaster in the UK North
Sea, a single incident is so serious that public inquiries are held, which can
lead to major changes in the legal requirements that govern the industry.
The 2010 BP Macondo disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will have a similar
effect. Macondo resulted from a chain of human errors, any one of which
could have broken the chain and prevented the disaster.
Ultimately, the safety of a person working at the wellsite is also very
much the individual’s own responsibility—not to work unsafely nor allow
others to do so and to alert supervisors to any unsafe conditions encountered.
However, the systems must be in place that lead to a safe environment and
that allow people to be effectively trained to work within those systems
(fig. 14–1). The actions and attitudes of management must ensure that

people are not encouraged—or intimidated—to work unsafely.
An important trend since the new millennium is the development of
highly automated systems that can replace human muscle power and keep
people away from heavy and powerful tools that can cause injury if things
go wrong.

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