E and P Safety Performance Monitoring
Authors: Visser J.P. , Asgil R.C. , Thorp Geoffrey 
Published: December 2007

Safety program management needs a form of statistical analysis to chart program progress and to measure its efficacy. While detailed analysis is required by safety officers to define causes and thus remedial action, management requires broader, simpler data that are unambiguous and easy to interpret, first at the company level then at a wider regional or national level for comparison purposes. The Oil Industry Intl. E and P Forum developed a simple reporting system with data provided by its members that fulfills these needs and gives its users a consistent set of data from a significant sample size that industry can use as a yardstick and indicator of trends.

Introduction

Increasing Safety Awareness. Significant advances in recent years have raised the standard of safety in the E and P industry. The Piper Alpha accident in 1988 and other serious accidents Piper Alpha accident in 1988 and other serious accidents demonstrated the dangers inherent in the search for and production of oil and gas. The need for continued vigilance and increased effort to improve safety performance in the E and P industry is clear. Safety now has a status equal to other primary business objectives in many operating companies. It is becoming widely accepted that accident prevention is good business practice and that a safe operation is usually an efficient operation. Safety programs are being implemented that involve all employees from top programs are being implemented that involve all employees from top management to the workplace, and benefits are being realized.

Importance of Safety Data. The effectiveness of any safety program must be monitored continuously. Accident statistics play program must be monitored continuously. Accident statistics play important roles as prime indicators of safety performance. Statistics, part of the safety management process, indicate whether safety programs are successful and highlight areas of weakness, be it on a company-, country-, or worldwide basis. Statistical information alone, significant as it is, tells little about how accidents occur or about how to reduce the number of injuries. Detailed analysis of the accident cause is required to achieve these goals and to take appropriate remedial actions. Statistics are, however, an essential link in the safety management process(Fig. 1). Without this link, it is impossible to measure performance accurately, and without this feedback, there is no realistic hope of managing safety professionally.

Different Standards. Some individual companies have made significant improvements in the collection and analysis of accident data. In these cases, detailed analysis is carried out that yields guidance on trends, relationships, and causes of accidents. These data-collection improvements still are isolated, and the data collected are not consistent in the industry. Worldwide, there are many different approaches to safety data collection, often dictated by legal requirements in the country concerned. This restricts collection of common, industry-wide safety data and makes performance comparisons worldwide difficult and unreliable, if not misleading. Thus, considerable doubts have been expressed, both in and outside the industry, about the usefulness of available industry safety statistics, particularly because under-reporting has occurred in the past.

Need for a Common Approach. It therefore is clear that, in the short term, any attempt to collect consistent data industry-wide must be tailored to suit the information that is readily available. If statistics are to be used to monitor industry safety performance, it is extremely important that common and consistent performance, it is extremely important that common and consistent records be collected industry wide. Confidence in industry safety performance will not grow until a set of accident figures is performance will not grow until a set of accident figures is available that honestly reflects industry status with respect to safety performance. If the industry cannot accurately measure performance, it cannot manage it. Furthermore, the commitment to performance, it cannot manage it. Furthermore, the commitment to safety appears extremely hollow if performance data are not available to back it up. A common system for the industry therefore is essential and would be a useful toot to guide national and international authorities considering setting up their own accident recording and reporting systems.

Rationalization of Existing Data

The reliability of a safety reporting system is not improved solely by the collection of more data. What is required is rationalization of available data. The collection of whole number counts in a limited number of groups is all that can be obtained currently given the quality and diversity of data available. However, industry-wide, this is still of significant value and may be all that can be practically expected in the short term.

JPT

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