Page 351 - Drilling Technology in Nontechnical Language

342 Drilling Technology in Nontechnical Language, Second Edition

STOP

The DuPont company some years ago designed a program to reduce
accidents and incidents in its factories. This program is called STOP, and
it has been implemented on many rigs.
The idea behind STOP is that if somebody witnesses an unsafe act
(some action that may lead to an accident), they should do the following:
1. Inform the person doing the unsafe act that they should stop
doing it. This must be done in a nonconfrontational manner.
2. Fill in a card that describes the unsafe act but does not name the
person doing it. The person filling in the card can optionally put

his or her name on the card but is not obliged to do so.
3. Somebody will be responsible for collecting the STOP cards and
seeing what lessons can be learned.
4. The lessons learned are disseminated at the weekly safety
meetings. If a number of STOP cards show a recurrent theme, the
safety manager may decide that the problem may be widespread
and some extra action is warranted, such as arranging training
courses or writing articles in newsletters.
STOP has proved to be very effective in reducing serious incidents. Its
use is quite widespread in the industry.

Minimizing Discharge and Spills

The oil industry gets a lot of bad press about discharges of substances
into the environment. While this type of criticism would have been fair
enough 10 years ago, it is now very different in most places. Discharges
from rigs owned by responsible companies are tightly controlled, and
modern rigs have systems designed and built into the rig to minimize any
discharge from the rig that does not meet strict standards of cleanliness.
In areas where no special environmental considerations apply, some
discharges can be made without adversely affecting the environment. In
sensitive areas, solid and liquid wastes can be disposed of in other ways.

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