Guest Editorial: Safety: It’s All About Us - The Human Factors Behind the Statistics

Abstract

Guest editorial The International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) Life-Saving Rules are now considered industry good practice. Each rule has a simple icon and guidance to explain why it is important and on which aspects workers and supervisors should focus. The rules are intended to supplement and support existing company management systems, programs, and policies, but are directed at the actions individual front-line workers and supervisors need to undertake to keep themselves and their workmates safe. Each rule is also linked to controls and barriers which, if used properly, can prevent or avoid fatal incidents. Shell provides an example of how successful and sustainable the implementation of a robust set of Life-Saving Rules can be. The company has seen a 75% reduction in fatalities and a 35% reduction in lost-time injuries since its rules were introduced in 2009. Analysis of 1,484 fatal incidents reported by IOGP member companies over the past 20 years indicates that adopting, conforming to, and enforcing the simple IOGP rules may well have prevented many of these fatalities. While IOGP member companies recognize the value of providing clear and consistent guidelines, efforts to re-energize the Life-Saving Rules program were triggered in 2015, when IOGP reported an increase in industry-related fatalities and fatal incidents, reversing a multiyear trend. Research showed that more than 70% of fatalities in that year could have been attributed to the industry failing to follow IOGP’s rules. Our newly published data for 2016 show only a slight improvement: 58% of the fatal incidents reported could have been avoided by following the rules. This is despite the fact that the causal factors of these incidents have remained broadly unchanged for many years. These include failures in training, competence, hazard identification, risk assessment, inattention, supervision, and procedures (Figs. 1a, 1b). Some may want to pin these issues on squeezed margins, job uncertainty, or doing the same (or more) with less. However, the data do not support that premise, and the hard truth is that commitment to follow the Life-Saving Rules should not be affected or rationalized by market conditions. IOGP data show that there are no “new” accidents; only failures to learn or to implement learnings from previous incidents. The rules have been proven to save lives and the real challenge lies in finding out why these rules are not consistently followed.