All member companies at one time or another have developed and implemented an engineering solution. It might be in response to an incident or safety alert. It might be part of continual improvement – spotting a potential hazard and engineering a solution to isolate people from that hazard was the theme of our event in Brisbane.
Following an event intro and welcome to delegates, David Shakovskoy (Senex) shared a poignant personal safety moment from an incident he had at home that he titled "Gravity Works". He detailed how rushing to end a painting job up a ladder, he fell and was badly injured, taking several months to fully recover - a very personal and humbling scene-setter for the value of Engineering Solutions as the theme.
He then gave a summary of the Rig Site Safety Working Group's (RSSWGs) Deep Dive into 2 years of onshore D&C incidents, several of them serious, where most of the actions were administrative. The theme of this event, and the launch of the Engineering Solutions portal are a result of this excellent analysis.
We then heard four incident presentations all of which resulted in engineering controls being applied post-incident:
- Paul Marsh (Ventia) presented on his organisation's walkway modifications.
- John Hanrick (Savanna Energy) shared how Savanna has used Virtual Reality technology to communicate the story of a finger crush injury, and the actions taken to engineer out the risks.
- Morgan Sidey (Coho Resources) shared Coho’s improvements to proximity alarms on their trucks going from visual to visual-plus-audio signals in the truck cabs.
- Adrian Smith (Santos) presented a detailed study of a static electricity fire at a wells site. He shared how the team meticulously examined all possible ignition sources before confirming static was the cause. He then shared the engineering controls now in place.
Hatem Bashandy (Halliburton) changed gears and reminded us that engineering helps protect our health as well as our safety. Hatem shared the latest technology Halliburton is using to electrify their spreads (switching off diesel to natural gas). This, in addition to other acoustic controls, is bringing a safer and more efficient process for Halliburton.
Special Guest Speaker Donna Jamieson (Principal Inspector -Rigs, RSHQ) shared the results of the PGI Drilling and Completions Noise Project which she had worked on over the past few years. The report highlighted the key risks to personnel’s hearing as well as a profile by specific occupation. She shared the excellent work some organisations are taking to reduce the risks of noise induced hearing loss, whilst being very clear that more still needs to be done. Donna closed by thanking the industry for being so supportive of the study and for providing access to sites and personnel. Donna's slides can be viewed here.
A highlight for the RSSWG was Jordan Bunning's (inGauge) presentation of the refreshed Line of Fire mini-portal, including a new video with the latest thinking in this space. Line of Fire remains a high-priority program for Safer Together and the D&C industry.
Thanks to Richard Darby (Ensign Energy) for stepping in to replace Dave Machin to present the event highlight - the launch of the Engineering Solutions portal. Safer Together has now built this portal where best practice can be shared. Members can access a range of Engineering Solutions developed by industry and can share their own via an online submission.
Michael Dickenson (Ventia), with insightful closing comments encouraged members to share and make use of the two websites promoted today, before inviting delegates to retire to a networking function.
Members can view a full recording of this event.
Thank you to event sponsors Senex Energy and Ventia.