According to Brittany Benko, vice president of HS&E for Anadarko Petroleum, there are two prominent issues that cause workplace-related deaths in the oil and gas industry. At 50 percent, the No. 1 factor is traffic fatalities.
"But what may surprise you is that it's not only the No. 1 cause of work-related deaths in the oil and gas industry; it's also the No. 1 cause of work-related deaths, period -- for all industries," Benko said.
The second-most fatal factor, at 20 percent, is contact with an object, particularly on drilling rigs. Ten percent of industry incidents are caused by fire and explosions, while another 10 percent are due to falls, and 5 percent are the result of exposure to harmful substances.
The oil and gas industry is actively engaged in reducing hazards, Benko said, by promoting inherently safer design.
In an address titled "Meeting production targets while improving environmental stewardship and safety: It can be done" at the Operational Excellence in Oil and Gas Summit held recently in Houston, Benko noted inherently safer design and development focuses on advanced technology drilling and completions, multi-well development, integrated infrastructure, centralized facilities and integrated operation centers.
"It is important not only for the safety of our people but also for the safety of those who work in upstream and live in areas where the upstream is being developed," she said. The upstream, Benko continued, is an industrial complex that is not restricted to the inside of a facility's fenceline but interspersed throughout the public.
"It's a huge plan inside your fenceline," Benko said. "It's all around you. So it's an important part not just for our safety but for the safety of the public as well."
Selling safety internally, externally
Benko admitted it can sometimes be a challenge to "quantify and sell" safety to upper management, especially when costs and interruptions to production must factor into the safety equation.
"Putting a cost figure to somebody's life when you have an incident where somebody gets hurt is always a struggle for me," she said.
Ultimately, Benko said the reality is that safety is good for business.
"The investment community thinks so, and the lenders think so as well because they're asking these kinds of questions to determine whether or not you are a good, managed company," Benko reasoned. "Safety is just one component of operating excellently. When you operate excellently, you're meeting your production targets, you're meeting your cost targets, and you're going to be a sustainable, long-term company."
Safety must also be "sold" to the public, Benko continued, encouraging industry leaders to be as transparent as possible when talking to the public, especially when addressing pipelines.
"People are very anti-pipeline and think they present great risk," she said. "But people drive every day, and they take that risk. There's acceptance of that type of risk, even though as many as 737,000 people have died in vehicle accidents since 1994."
Benko urged industry leaders to share as much information in layman's terms as possible with the public.
"A lot of the time, we in the industry 'talk technical' to them, and that's not where they're talking from," she said. "They're talking from fear, and that leads to outrage."
"It's imperative for industry leaders to acknowledge the public's concerns," Benko said. "Then you have to walk with them and try to show them what you're doing to manage your business well.
"They expect us to keep our product in our kit, because if we can't do it, then who's going to?"
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