Safety Training for the Oil and Natural Gas Industry

The oil and natural gas industry is a huge contributor to the American economy. What happens in the industry influences the entire nation. The industry supports more than nine million American jobs and makes significant economic contributions as both an employer and purchaser of American goods and services.

Oilfield safety is an important component of the industry and is taken seriously. When accidents do occur, they can be perilous to life and limb. Drilling personnel must know how to work safely on a rig and surrounding areas and protect themselves, costly rig equipment, and the expensive hole being drilled.

Proactive Safety Training

Vertical Alliance Group provides safety training to proactively identify and train personnel on oilfield safety rules, regulations and/or procedures. This training covers key areas that can affect oilfield workers.

OSHA influence on oilfield safety
Recognition and awareness of hazards
Health and safety procedures
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Lockout/tagout
Safe lifting
Fall protection
Accident investigation, and much more.

This online training covers safety issues not the mechanical functions of performing oilfield work (training is not for certification).

Safe operating practices and procedures are vital in the drilling business because the work involves constant awareness due to hazards, involving massive machinery, heavy tools and great physical strength. When there is an accident everyone loses.

Injuries result in pain and suffering and may leave a person disabled for life.
Even minor injuries may cause loss of time from work and lost pay.
Insurance benefits are helpful, but compensation payments cannot restore a life, limb or eye.
Damaged machinery and equipment can usually be repaired but almost always at considerable cost, particularly if down time is taken into account.
An expensive well may be lost because of the oversight or the incompetence of one person.
Blowouts and fires cause loss of life and equipment and waste precious oil and gas from underground reservoirs.

Oilfields use different equipment and tools, but safety common sense is the same for an oilfield as it is for any other type of workplace safety.

OSHA laws protect safety and health of workers and give workers the right to know what materials they are handling. Safe handling of mud chemicals and the general safety of all drilling operations are of prime concern to OSHA, the operator and the mud engineer. Monitoring for toxic hydrogen sulfide [H2S] in air around the rig and testing mud for sulfides are an essential part of rig safety.

OSHA enforces violations that can also include:

Kelly hose not secured with chain.
No Geronimo line form monkey board.
Safety goggles not clean and in good repair.
V-Door opening not guarded.

Twenty-five states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have OSHA-approved State Plans and have adopted their own standards and enforcement policies. For the most part, these States adopt standards that are identical to Federal OSHA. However, some States have adopted different standards applicable to this topic or may have different enforcement policies.

Vertical Alliance Group safety training covers many of the important OSHA safety and health programs.

Fall Protection
Confined Spaces
Lockout/Tagout
Noise and Hearing Conservation
Safe Operation of Cranes and Hoists
Forklift Safety