OGP recommendedpractice focuses on

eliminating driving incidentsLinda Hsieh, associate editor

IN OUR MODERN society, driving hasbecome almost second nature for mostpeople. Motorized travel is so common,people hardly think about it anymore.But what’s not natural – and what peoplemust think about – is the ever-increasingfatality rates associated with road acci-dents.

According to the World Health Organiza-tion, road accidents kill 1.2 million peo-ple every year worldwide and injure 50million more. WHO studies predict that ifrecent trends continue, the number ofroad deaths and injuries will rise bymore than 60 percent between 2000 and2020.

According to statistics provided by theInternational Association of Oil & GasProducers (OGP), driving-related inci-dents are the single largest cause of fatal-ities in OGP member company operations.

In an industry that is constantly strivingto achieve a zero-incident vision, this isan unacceptable statistic. And the OGP’sLand Transportation Safety Taskforce isbent on making changes.

Formed in 2002, the taskforce is made upof about 20 producer companies andSchlumberger Oilfield Services, aswell as OGP and the International Asso-ciation of Drilling Contractors. It wasarmed with the mission of drafting a setof driving safety guidelines to helpreduce, and ultimately eliminate, thenumber of serious road traffic incidentsand fatalities.

After about three years, those guidelineshave been finalized, said Derek Tate,NSA & Global Driving Manager ofSchlumberger, a taskforce member.

“Schlumberger is recognized as anindustry leader in land transport anddriving safety, so we provided the experi-ences we’ve had with our driving safetyprogram and provided a core foundationfor the OGP document,” Mr Tate said.The key players of the taskforce thenjoined hands to share the best practicesfrom each company.

What resulted is the OGP Land Trans-portation Safety Recommended Prac-tice. It was intentionally developed tobe sufficiently generic so that all com-panies within the oil and gas industry –operators, contractors or subcontrac-tors – could use it, in all regions of theworld.

“The idea is for operators to implementand then lead contractors and subcon-tractors,” Mr Tate said. “One of thechallenges is that while many operatorshave very successful driving safety pro-grams of their own, difficulties arisewhen they try to transfer that to con-tractor companies. But by having anindustry standard, all operators andcontractors will have the same level ofexpectations.”

Although the OGP has had the LandTransport Safety Guidelines in placesince 1996, the document never gainedfull traction, Mr Tate said. So the newtask force set out to revise those guide-lines and instead come up with a landtransport management system that iseasier to implement.

The new OGP recommendations are“more of minimum standards rather thanan ideal state,” he said. “Instead of set-ting the ideal very high and making it dif-ficult to attain, we have set a minimumstandard of performance.”

Over the past decade, while there havebeen consistent and continuing reduc-tions in the number of fatalities andinjuries on the drill floor, progress in

60 D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R March/april 2006

Putting the industry on the road to safety

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An aerial shot shows Schlumberger’s driving center in Kellyville, Okla. The company, “recognized asan industry leader in land transport and driving safety,” also has centers in Canada and Mexico andis in the process of building a new one in Russia. It also has small regional ones in Argentina,Venezuela and Siberia.

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eliminating driving-related incidentshave apparently been harder to manage.

“Driving is quite commonly an unsuper-vised task,” Mr Tate noted. “So you havean employee in a vehicle, where it mayseem that they’re independent of policiesand practices. So they revert to at-riskbehavior.” And this problem has, untilnow, gone largely ignored.

“This isn’t a new problem, but as thedrilling industry has reduced the numberof injuries and fatalities on the drill floor,the number of driving-related fatalitieshas become that much more apparent,”Mr Tate said.

Even at Schlumberger, an industryleader in many areas, a driving safetyprogram had been in place for years butdidn’t kick into full gear until 2000. Sincethen, however, the company has seen itsdriving-related incidents reduced bynearly 75 percent.

And Mr Tate notes that he is seeingincreasing interest and concern aroundthe globe, from all sectors in the industry.

“I’m at a conference in Cairo right nowwhere we’re rolling out the OGP recom-mended practice, and if attendance werean indication, I’d say interest is very high– we’ve got great turnout,” he said.

OGP is aiming for full implementation ofits recommended practice by the end of2008. The group recommends that theguidelines be applied to all land trans-port activities in the E&P industry.

Topics covered in the practice are:

• Seatbelts – Occupants of any vehicleshall use seatbelts at all times;

• Driver training and qualification – Dri-vers must be appropriately licensed,trained, and have the functional capacityto operate the vehicle;

• In-vehicle monitoring systems – Vehi-cles shall be fitted with an In-VehicleMonitoring System or Vehicle DataRecorder that produces journey data;

• Use of cell phones and two-way com-munications devices – Drivers shall nei-ther initiate nor answer a mobile tele-phone call while driving a vehicle;

• Journey management plans – Man-agers at every level shall question theneed for journeys;

• Substance abuse – Drivers shall notoperate a vehicle while under the influ-ence of alcohol, drugs, narcotics or med-

ication that could impair the operator’sfunctional capability;

• Driver fitness and alertness – All per-sons employed as drivers and personsregularly driving on company businessmust be medically assessed with a mini-mum follow-up every five years to ensurethey have functional capacity;

• Vehicle specifications – Vehicles shallbe fit for purpose based on assessment ofusage and be maintained in safe workingorder; and

• Management systems – Company andcontractor management systems shallinclude requirements for managing landtransport safety and the effective imple-mentation of the Land TransportationSafety Recommended Practice.

Some topics, such as seatbelts, are com-mon enough and should already be cov-ered by governmental regulations inmost areas of the world. Others though,Mr Tate said, require extra companyattention.

The in-vehicle monitoring systems, forexample, require more than just a finan-cial commitment during installation, henoted. “The data needs to be evaluated,and coaching needs to take place for thedrivers. The monitoring device is rela-tively ineffective without the coaching toaffect driver behavior.”

Other topics touch on what may be con-sidered gray areas. Mr Tate notes thateliminating the use of cell phones duringland transport activities involves poten-tial changes in business culture andpractices, and compliance will comedown to the company’s decision.

“Some people may feel that using hands-free devices (while driving) is sufficientlysafe. Plus, it’s not illegal. So with OGP’srecommended practice, this becomes asituation of something not being illegal,but you’re not supposed to do it,” he said.

The guidelines also outline eight ele-ments of a management system for landtransport safety. They are:

• Visible leadership and commitment;

• Policy statement with strategic objec-tives;

• A management structure in place withadequate resources and documentationto record program performance;

• A hazard identification and riskassessment of land transport operations;

• Planning for changes in personnel,vehicles, processes and procedures, aswell as contingency and emergency plan-ning;

• Written procedures for all safety criti-cal land transport activities with a moni-toring system and an assignment ofresponsibility for initiating correctiveaction;

• A system of planned and systematicaudits;

• Reviews of the management system bysenior management at appropriate inter-vals.

Mr Tate notes that employees must alsostand up and take responsibility.

“It takes management leadership to initi-ate the OGP recommended practice,” hesaid, “but there’s also the duty of care onemployees’ part. For example, the com-pany may provide a hard hat, but theemployee needs to wear it.”

With work now completed on drafting theOGP recommended practice, OGP isworking to spread the message andencourage all industry companies – OGPmembers or not – to adopt the guidelines.

“Ultimately, the guidelines are there tohelp the industry realize a journey tozero incidents,” he said.

As with any HSE initiative, there areobstacles to be overcome.

“I think the biggest challenge is corpo-rate commitment,” Mr Tate said. “Butonce you decide to do it, you just do it.”And for the companies that think theyjust don’t have the resources to pursuethis?

“You shouldn’t look at it that way,” headvised. “It’s a matter of what you cando, and that’s the concept of industrypractice. We at Schlumberger find thathaving the program is in the best interestof all stakeholders. It’s responsible busi-ness practice, and it makes good busi-ness sense.”

According to WHO, road incidents arefully preventable. Driving-related fatali-ties and injuries are not random,unavoidable events – even in the drillingindustry. We just need to work harder atprevention.

And for the skeptics out there who don’tbelieve that the zero-incident vision canbe achieved? Mr Tate responds: “If younever try, you never find out.” �

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