Working Together - Saving Lives
Authors: Threadgold Ian , Jeffrey Charles , Sixma Eelco , Garcia Danny 
Published: July 2010

In today's business world there is competition amongst E&P companies, and competition between geophysical contractors. In addition, there are contractual relationships between E&P companies and geophysical contractors. However, there is one aspect of this model where the geophysical industry prefers a collaborative rather than a competitive approach – health, safety, security and the environment (HSSE).

The International Association of Geophysical Contractors (IAGC) and the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) take advantage of this fact to work together closely and collaboratively on HSSE issues to save lives, prevent harm to people, and avoid damage to the environment, by sharing experience, information and developing joint industry standards and best practices.

The cooperation between the IAGC HSE&S Committee and the OGP Geophysical HSSE Sub-committee revolves mainly around joint meetings and the development of documentation. An example of real success at these meetings has been the sharing of serious and high potential near miss incidents. Over a few years, the atmosphere has gone from one of reluctance to share these incidents to one of great enthusiasm, with everyone realizing both organizations and memberships are all working to the same objectives of saving lives and reducing injuries.

The largest area of cooperation has been in the development of joint industry standards and recommended practice documents which are then endorsed by both organizations and communities. Perhaps the best example the close collaboration between E&P Companies and Geophysical Contractors is the "Aide Memoir for Geophysical Risk Assessors". Jointly OGP and IAGC member companies shared data on fatal accidents and managed to assemble a data base of fatalities that have occurred in geophysical operations over 3 decades, currently describing some 320 events that lead to a total of 522 fatalities. This database gives substantial insight into where our risks are and provides training material for the next generation, avoiding painful re-inventing of the wheel.

A further example is the joint steering of a Transport Research Laboratories (TRL) study (paid for by an OGP member company) to develop a protocol for improved passenger truck design. The result has been an industry-wide accepted design, with more than 520 trucks (as of the date of writing this paper) in the geophysical industry having been (re-)built incorporating the recommendations from this protocol.

If the whole of the geophysical sector could work to the same industry standards, then it could become more efficient from the tendering stage and on through the operations phase of any geophysical project.

Out of all the oil and gas industry sectors, the geophysical sector seems to be the one where there is the greatest level of cooperation between the E&P company and Contractor company communities. The relationship between the IAGC HSE&S Committee and the OGP Geophysical HSSE Sub-committee is a model for inter-trade association cooperation and this joint work can only help to reduce incidents, save lives and improve industry efficiency.