High Safety Standards Equals More Clients For Drilling Contractors

The oil and gas industry comes with many safety risks. However, drilling contractors can mitigate them with the right safety program. High safety standards can go a long way in creating a safe environment for employees and visitors while helping to maintain efficient operations. However, as a drilling contractor, you might not know exactly how to maximize safety in the workplace.

Here we’ll explore the benefits of having a clear safety record and how you can facilitate one with the right safety measures.

How a Spotless Safety Record Benefits Drilling Contractors

Several benefits make high safety standards important to a drilling contractor and an operator. These benefits include the following:

More Business Opportunities

If drilling contractors have safety programs that maintain a consistently safe workplace, this will lead to an increase in business opportunities. Potential partners will be more inclined to work with drilling contractors who have a reliable safety program in place. This protects workers. However, it also helps ensure operations run smoothly throughout each project. As a result, operators and contractors will maintain a better relationship that keeps them in business in the long term.

Saved Money

Reliable safety measures also help save money. This is accomplished by preventing potentially costly workplace incidents. Workers stay safer, increasing productivity while helping you avoid potentially expensive legal issues due to avoidable work-related injuries. You’ll also be able to prevent equipment breakdowns that might otherwise set you back while putting employees at risk. In the end, you’ll experience cost savings as you keep your work environment safe and efficient with a solid safety program.

Improved Workforce Safety

A good safety program will also promote increased workforce safety in a number of ways. Training for both contractors and operators will help keep workers safer on a regular basis. Workers will understand how to properly prevent workplace accidents and handle equipment safely to avoid potential issues. A healthier workforce is also a happier one. It leads to an increase in productivity that keeps operations running as they should.

Steps for Ensuring Safety in the Oil and Gas Industry

There are many steps you can take to implement a safety program that keeps your workplace consistently safe and secure. For example, you can:

Understand All Safety Protocols Before Beginning Work

One of the best steps is to know all safety protocols and requirements before work begins. You can ensure this by undergoing full training by site safety coordinators who can detail all necessary steps.

Wear the Right Protective Gear

Another critical step is to wear sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) that keeps all workers safe on the job. There are many pieces of PPE. Be sure to equip employees with safety goggles, hard hats, apparel rated for the specific job, hearing protection, boots, and gloves. You should also ensure equipment inspections are routinely performed. Look for any wear and tear warranting replacement PPE, which will further keep workers safer at all times.

Prepare Dig Sites Properly

Before you begin digging, ensure you’ve identified and marked all utilities in the dig site. Also, if you need to build a trench, it’s important to adhere to the guidelines under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Otherwise, trenches can cave in and present other hazards to workers, such as mobile equipment hazards and falling loads.

Limit Mobile Device Usage

You should have a policy that helps regulate the use of personal electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets in the workplace. These types of devices can easily distract workers at the wrong moment, leading to potential accidents.

Use Proper Signage to Mark Hazards

If there are any hazards present that you cannot remove, clearly indicate these hazards with sufficient signage. For example, mark all overhead lines that could otherwise lead to electrocution if workers aren’t aware of their presence. 

Facilitate Necessary Breaks for Employees

You should enforce breaks to keep workers from fatigue, heat exhaustion, and other risks related to working long consecutive hours. Also, educate employees about the differences between heat exhaustion, heat stress, and heat stroke to give them a good understanding of the risks they face in drilling environments. Workers should take occasional breaks to recover and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.

Report All Unsafe Conditions

If you or workers witness any hazards, unsafe working conditions, or potentially dangerous acts on the part of employees or supervisors, it’s important to report these incidents. Doing so will alert those higher up and help ensure that steps are taken to mitigate safety risks with these dangers present.

Create an In-Depth Safety Checklist With a Maintenance Worksheet

You can also keep your workplace safer by developing and following a safety checklist. This checklist can include specific steps to take when checking and inspecting equipment, and other tasks that boost safety before work starts. Checklists also ensure maintenance crews properly complete each repair or replacement.

To help you build these checklists, you can use forms such as an equipment inspection and maintenance worksheet that optimizes the inspection and maintenance process. Specifically, GoCanvas can provide the forms you need to help perform all safety checks and maintenance tasks. These forms are paperless and work with any mobile devices, giving your teams access whenever they need them.

Keep Your Workplace Safe With Higher Safety Standards

By taking safety seriously, you’ll create a workplace that’s consistently safer and provides workers with the protection they need at all times. If you need help as a drilling contractor when implementing safety programs and protocols, GoCanvas can equip your business with efficient and thorough paperless forms.

You’ll find over 20,000 mobile forms at GoCanvas, including a range of equipment inspection and maintenance worksheets. As a result, you can automate safety checks and more effectively minimize the risk of incidents that could otherwise cause harm to workers and equipment.