A major oilfield services company has a project management group that, through the course of its business operations, travels over 38 million miles a year. This is an extremely large exposure to an activity that is the largest common cause of fatalities in the oil and gas industry. To exacerbate this exposure, 75% of this driving is subcontracted. Successfully managing contractors and subcontractors is a challenging task in our industry. Within the contracted group, there are approximately 200 transport contractors and logistic providers, and about 3,000 contracted vehicles operated by 8,000 different drivers. The escalating use of contractors came with an escalating and significant increase in the motor vehicle crash rate (MVCR). Vehicle rollovers within the contract group represented 11 crashes out of a total of 18 for the company over a 1-year period from May 2007 to May 2008. And some accidents had dramatic consequences, including one fatality and several major environmental spills. In order to manage the increased exposure and reverse negative trends, it was deemed critical to go beyond traditional approaches addressed by contractor management fundamentals. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a driving safety campaign aimed at transport contractors. The campaign contributed significantly to improved driving performance, with reductions in both the frequency and severity of transport-contractor–related incidents. The safety program was launched in 2008 on managed projects worldwide. The initiative analyzed existing performance, defined targets to ensure utmost positive impact, established clear roles and responsibilities, formalized package content in five languages, and implemented systematic monitoring processes to measure impact. The campaign materials put a strong emphasis on professionalism and on associated responsibilities with slogans such as: "I'm a professional driver," "Professional drivers don't…," and "Lives are in my hands." The paper also describes the campaign tool box that was developed to support the initiative. This program has created a solid foundation for further improvements in land transport safety. In a a typical well construction project, where operational continuity is imperative, field logistics is a key component that can have a significant impact on the project's success. Crashes, and other transport-related events, can cause significant delays which dramatically impact operational continuity. As well as this direct impact on NPT, another factor of even greater concern is the fact that crashes can cause other irreparable losses: human lives, life-altering injuries, and environmental damage.
Introduction The contribution of subcontractors to oilfield service operations in Mexico has almost doubled over the last five years. Historically, the role of subcontractors was mainly limited to logistical or peripheral activities, but with the growth of integrated projects, they contribute directly to oilfield service operations, including well construction activities. In order to continue overall performance improvements in health, safety, environment, and service quality areas, it is critical to proactively manage interactions with our subcontractors so that risks are systematically identified and adequately controlled. This paper gives an overview of a subcontractor management initiative, implemented in Mexico during 2004 and 2005 that enhanced the interfaces between a service company and its subcontractors. The initiative defined risk-based subcontractor selection and classification criteria, established clear roles and responsibilities, formalized performance and compliance expectations contractually, and implemented systematic monitoring processes to ensure compliance and evaluate performance. Similarly, specific efforts were made to develop the maturity of quality, health, safety, and environmental (QHSE) systems and the cultures of certain subcontractors by providing assistance, including training and coaching. Exposures and Impact Contracting services and buying products have always been strategic components of oil and gas company operations because of the direct and critical impact on project technical performance and economics. Until recently, this dimension has not represented the same criticality for oilfield service companies like Schlumberger who are accustomed to working as contractors. This was largely due to a more limited exposure and a natural tendency to give absolute priority to the commercial and technical relationship with their clients, without necessarily realizing how much their own performance can be influenced by that of their subcontractors. However, over the last 15 years, a clear tendency to outsource activities has also taken shape in service companies for multiple reasons, such as the focus on core business activities and chain of value, needs for specialized equipment or particular expertise not necessarily available in house, short term needs or increasing flexibility requirements, cost effectiveness, clients or legal requirements, and access to local knowledge. In addition, with the development of integrated projects and turnkey contracts in which oilfield service companies are directly managing the well construction process for their clients, subcontracting part of the contributing activities, the exposure has increased to levels never experienced before. As an example, 3.2 million work-hours were out sourced by Schlumberger Mexico in 2004 corresponding to 34% of the total work-hours for the same period. For an oilfield service company, typical sub-contracted services includeLogistics: transport of personnel, equipment, products (land, air, water), craning, and liftingWell construction: drilling, fluids, casing, rig moves, civil worksConsulting, training, expertise, inspection, certificationConstruction: bases, workshops, officesMaintenance and repairs: bases, offices, and vehicles.Labor: workforce, consultantsCommunications: radios, frequency rentalMedical support: doctors, nurses, ambulancesWaste management: transport, treatment, disposalRental: bases, houses, equipment and tools, vehicles
Among all known infectious and tropical diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, malaria is certainly one of the highest in the list of health concerns of African governmental institutions (Table 1) and of oilfield-related companies. Although preventive methods and curative treatment exist, malaria still kills about 2 1/2 million people per year in sub-Saharan African countries. Moreover, in the oilfield industry, a considerable number of nonimmune people travel back and forth between malaria-infested and noninfested areas. Most of the malaria-related fatalities in the oilfield industry come from this type of population. A systematic and methodical approach to malaria prevention was developed and successfully implemented in seven countries in west and southern Africa. In this paper, we explore underlying causes and common patterns seen in malaria fatalities in the oilfield industry using in-depth root cause analysis. Complexity factors are analyzed and their relationship to malaria prevention established, to provide a better understanding of the acuity of the problem. The prevention program is derived from a systematic application of a quality, health, safety, and environment (QHSE) management model. The proposed approach is validated in the short and long term using comprehensive analysis of inputs from a data capturing software. A population of more than 400 nonimmune oilfield personnel traveling in and out of sub-Saharan Africa is used as a sample for the study. It appears that malaria prevention is ineffective if not tackled in a rational manner. Distributing curative and preventive treatment to personnel is not sufficient to solve the problem. Instead, a program based on a logical and structured model, whereby tools and processes are available for each element of the model, provides a more effective approach to malaria risk management to achieve malaria fatality-free operations in west and southern Africa. Introduction Malaria is one of the most important threats to the health of the oilfield population traveling in and out of west and southern Africa. In fact, the most common type of malaria in this part of Africa (malaria P. falciparum or also called cerebral malaria) is life-threatening, and causes 300 to 500 million clinical cases in the world (more than one person is infected every 10 seconds) and more than 2 million deaths occur each year. More than 90% of malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa (approximately 3,000 deaths each day). Over the past five years, many oilfield industry employees have died from malaria. In almost 100% of the cases, those employees died while on days-off or while traveling outside of the malaria-infested area. Between 2000 and 2002, two major oilfield companies reported six malaria fatalities of their non-African employees and contractors working in west and southern Africa, all happening while outside Africa. In 2002, employees of an oilfield service company reported 16 serious malaria cases in west and southern Africa, most leading to hospitalization. An in-depth analysis and investigation of the above cases have highlighted the following common patterns leading to malaria fatalities:Employees had a "days-off mentality," displaying a higher awareness of the disease on location, but relaxing their vigilance while off location.The incubation period of the disease is from 7 to 60 days.Symptoms of the disease are flu-like and easily confused.Doctors are ignorant of malaria in many parts of the world.Employees displayed a complacent "It won't happen to me" attitude.Curative medication is not available in noninfested areas. In addition to the above, some complexity factors can be added:the notion of semi-immunity against malaria is not well understoodmental barriers to preventive medicationpersonal factors that affect employees behavior with regards to malaria prevention.
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