Monitoring Health and Safety of Oilfield Workers through Wearable Technology

Abstract

Abstract Recent advancements in wearable technologies have opened multiple avenues for innovation in numerous fields. The smart watch in particular that monitors individual's health and mental state allows user to keep regular track and maintain his/her fitness is extensively in use these days. The idea this paper proposes is that Oil and Gas industry can also deploy such technology to monitor the health of oilfield workers. Such fitness tool can enhance employee safety by monitoring workers’ stress level and also by alerting workers to occupational hazards. Keeping regular track of workers’ health will enhance workplace efficiency which will lead to reduced downtime and cost savings and would also enhance workplace's safety. This technology can be very easily implemented in Oil and Gas industries with very minimal costs and in return enhancing the health and safety of the workplace by several times. However, the gadgets must be suitable for rugged environment which present additional set of challenges. Not only the gadgets should be resistant to the harsh environments such as exposure to high temperature, drilling fluid interference and brash operational conditions, but also should be able to accurately measure and transmit the data. The paper enlists the advantages of using such devices in the oil and gas industries, both upstream and downstream and also addresses various challenges faced by such gadgets while deploying into the oilfields and necessary modifications and enhancement in prevailing technologies to counteract with situation. This paper presents a novel idea of managing the health and safety of the workers in the workplace very efficiently and at the same time, benefitting the company, both socially and economically. The use of special smart watches would make the working environment of such a dynamic industry a better place than before very simply, easily and cheaply and at the same time ensuring safety and improved economics of the industry.