Health, safety and environment policy ofCrosco, integrated drilling & well servicesco., ltd. – application of HSE practice inonshore drillingN. Rehoroviæ and S. Babiæ

PROFESSIONAL PAPER

The paper considers the approach to and aspects of occupational safety in drilling operations based onCrosco’s experience, and synergy of professional expertise in onshore deep drilling and knowledge ofexisting regulations in this area. Key preconditions for achieving such synergy are human resources that,apart from professional expertise, have good training in quality management, health, safety andenvironmental protection. Comparison of injury frequency rate in Crosco and other international drillingcontractors shows that Crosco has good track record, but there is always room for improvement. Good HSEresults, apart from achieving compliance with prescribed rules, contribute to higher level of satisfaction ofemployees, the client and other stakeholders, company’s image and finally to overall performance of thecompany.

Key words: onshore drilling, HSE, implementation of occupational safety, environmental protection

1. INTRODUCTIONToday, almost every oil company, including oilfield ser-vice contractors, place safety of their employees highly ontheir agenda. In this respect, Crosco, the only Croatiandrilling and oilfield service company, is not an exception.When competing in international market Crosco mustmeet stringent quality and HSE standards. However, itwas not always so. Current HSE regulations evolvedthrough the long history of oil industry. Before gradualHSE improvement, there were numerous cases of severeand fatal injuries in onshore and offshore drilling opera-tions executed by various international contractors.Work on the well site is considered as one of the most dif-ficult and dangerous jobs. Therefore it was imperative tointroduce various protection and prevention measures inorder to mitigate injury risks and fatal injury rate. Pro-tection of health and safety of employees was accompa-nied by concern for the environment and today oilcompanies have in place HSE regulations which must befollowed in carrying out various oil operations. Effectiveimplementation of HSE measures represents an impor-tant competitive advantage in the international marketand contributes to oil company reputation. As a result oftechnology development and improved health and safetymeasures, the number of injuries, particularly fatal inju-ries, significantly decreased. Growing concern for HSEwas recorded first in the Western countries driven byhigh indemnification costs that resulted from inflicted in-juries and pollution of the environment. In the East andin undeveloped countries HSE issues were not highlypraised at the beginning, however, the situation haschanged, first in the rich Arabian countries, but in otherparts of the world as well. Despite oil companies’ effortsto improve HSE measures, even today injuries and those

with fatal end happen during different well operations,mainly as a result of human error. In order to preventsuch outcomes it is important to implement qualitytraining of employees engaged in well operations throughapplication of advanced technology and by pursuingprescribed occupational safety measures.

2. HSE REGULATIONS

Crosco carries out operations fully in compliance withHSE regulations effective in the Republic in Croatia6 butalso in other countries in the world where drilling andother oilfield services are performed. Croatian labour actin Article 28 requires employer to provide documenta-tion on maintenance of plants, equipment, tools, worksite and access to the site and to ensure workplace safetyso as to protect lives and health of employees. The em-ployer is obliged to acquaint employees with potentialhazards of a workplace and provide adequate safetytraining. This also refers to lodging facilities if the em-ployer committed to ensure workers lodging on specificsite. Occupational safety act is focused on prevention ofinjuries, occupational diseases, other job related dis-eases and workplace protection. Part of provisions ofCroatian mining law4 deal with the issues related to oper-ation of drilling rigs and other equipment used in oil andgas exploration and production. Safety measures in thisarea are prescribed in Articles 70 through 76.

As for the HSE regulations in foreign countries, theydiffer from country to country. However, there is a con-siderable degree of similarity when dealing with specificoil industry problems and generally they prescribe simi-lar obligations. It would be quite impractical that, for ex-ample, engineers and responsible persons of a

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contractor were obliged to pass professional exams ineach country of operation.

Fortunately, scope of Croatian legislation and requiredexpertise level prescribed by Croatian “Regulation onnecessary training and expertise for carrying out miningoperations”3 ensures sufficient skills required for perfor-mance of oil services abroad. Some foreign clients (oper-ators) ask for certificates on professional exams passedby key personnel in country of origin in order to verifyHSE skills.

3. IMPLEMENTATION OFOCCUPATIONAL SAFETYMEASURES IN PRACTICE

Technology advances that have been gradually intro-duced in entire oil industry, enabled decrease of fatal in-juries rate and work related injury rate, however theserates did not entirely follow technology developments.For this reason it was necessary to introduce specific oc-cupational safety measures. The introduction of healthand safety at work2 in Great Britain is very illustrative inthis respect. Detection of problems and work related in-cidents, induced passing of regulations which forbid useof some equipment and tools which proved to be unsafe,but it resulted in some backlogs in application of newtechnologies.

In order to tackle these problems in Great Britain, LordRoben, who was at that time engaged in improvement of

HSE related to mining sector, was invited to analyseproblems of injuries at work, particularly in relation toactivities in industries that were not covered by specificHSE regulations. In 1972 he presented the findingswhich had significant impact on passing of the new“Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974”. Namely, it wasestablished that specific HSE regulations did not followtechnology advancements sufficiently. Consequently,companies were obliged to identify risks and make riskassessments, eliminate or at least mitigate risks, and, ofcourse, to observe existing laws and regulations. This Actis applied by British oil industry, but similar approach isalso adopted by other European states.

Crosco is continuously working on prevention of inju-ries at work and the results are visible in our companystatistics for the recent years. The health and safety sys-tem is in place for a long time. In 1998 the system wascompleted with Crosco’s own risk assessment for everyjob position. It was successfully adjusted with OHSAS18001:1999 requirements, implemented and audited.Soon after that the environmental protection manage-ment system was also adjusted to ISO 14001:2004 normand implemented. Today, Crosco is certified according tothe most recent standards, including OHSAS18001:2007, and it is a proof of progress achieved andcontinuous work on improvement of health and safety ofemployees and environmental protection. Figure 1 indi-cates the decline of lost time injuries since 1997 and inthis respect Crosco follows the trend of other interna-

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N. REHOROVIÆ AND S. BABIÆ HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT POLICY OF CROSCO...

Fig. 1. Lost Time Injury FrequencySl. 1. Uèestalost ozljeda s izgubljenim radnim vremenom

tional service companies associated in InternationalAssociation of Drilling Contractors – IADC.

These data indicate that Crosco can compete success-fully in international market, both with quality of servicesand compliance with HSE requirements.

4. SAFETY AT WORK DURINGPREPARATION FOR DRILLING ANDPERFORMANCE OF DRILLINGOPERATIONS

During preparation of drilling rigs and drilling opera-tions on the well site, there are many risks for a drillingcrew. As derricks and other drilling equipment are veryheavy, even the smallest component of a rig poses a po-tential risk from injury. The works on the well site usu-ally start with moving of the derrick and completeequipment, frequently including housing units, to thewell site. There are also considerable risks for employeesduring transport and handling of heavy freight. There-fore it is necessary to follow strictly all regulations re-lated to use of lifting equipment, as well as loading andoffloading operations. Configuration of the land, soilproperties, functionality of lifting equipment and crew’sskills, are very important factors that have high impacton potential injuries during transport and handling ofequipment.

When rig components are transported to the well site,drilling rigs need to be assembled and made ready sothat drilling operations can start. Good communicationand coordination of all crew members and following ofdrilling operator’s procedure during drill rig erection,are essential for safety of employees. As numerous activi-ties are carried out at heights, all personnel must wear allprotective equipment, including equipment for work atheights. It could be assumed that observance of opera-tor’s procedures would exclude injuries. But in somecases it is not possible to meet all safety requirements,particularly those related to work at heights. In suchcases proper training of the crew is very important foravoiding injuries.

During drilling, a lot of attention must be paid to adher-ence to prescribed fire protection measures, because the-oretically, hydrocarbons may appear on the surface atany time. If case of dangerous gases appearance, such ashydrogen sulphide (H2S), carbon monoxide (CO), carbondioxide (CO2) or other, the entire crew must be trainedfor proper reaction in such cases, because carbon mon-oxide is highly toxic and lethal even in small concentra-tions, carbon monoxide is toxic and carbon dioxide issuffocating.

In practice, several subcontractors are usually workingat the same time on the well site, both operator’s and ser-vice company’s crews. The operations involve a numberof workers executing different activities, therefore highquality coordination and follow up of prescribed proce-dures of each subcontractor is essential for avoidance ofinjuries and incidents. The above described risks are notthe only hazards that may appear during drilling, there-fore well operations are very risky and unpredictable.

Generally, all companies have in place prescribed pro-cedures and their common goal is to prevent injuries at

work. Basic procedures and guidelines may havedifferent names, but all of them include some of the re-quirements as listed below:

• Workers are obliged to wear personal protective equip-ment – PPE, which generally includes protectiveheadwear, goggles, footwear, gloves and protectiveclothing. Some operations require special protectiveequipment, as for example work at height, protectivemask, protective equipment against noise, PPE againstchemical exposure.

• Pre-job safety meetings, preparations for obtainingpermit to work which include job safety analysis or riskassessment,

• Regular drills for any possible hazard situation thatmay occur during drilling operations such as fire drill,kick drill, rescue drill. For this reason at least two mus-ter points must be designated at which all site workersmust gather in case of emergency, apart from the teamsassigned for rehabilitation of emergency situation.

Depending on company’s procedures or work condi-tions, other safety systems can be applied:

• STOP CARD system is based on insights about atti-tudes and behaviour of safety personnel: involvementof all workers on the site in the system of identifyingand reporting on hazards with the purpose to decreasepotential injuries to the minimum by means of writtenSTOP cards. These cards are useful for analyzing thefrequency of hazardous work procedures and workersbehaviour which might lead to injuries.

• TOUR CARD system is implemented on locations withexpected or existing possibility of hydrogen sulphideappearance. The system involves wearing of identitycard by each and every individual employee working onthe site so as to detect at any moment whether any em-ployee is in hazardous zone in case of hydrogen sul-phide or other hazardous gas appearance. Somecompanies implement Tour Card system on sites evenif there is no danger of hazardous gases.

In addition to the above quoted procedures and sys-tems aimed at minimising injuries, importance of safework practices and proper training should not be forgot-ten. For this reason, today all companies pay a lot of at-tention to refreshing of workers’ knowledge and skills,verify procedures and systems implemented for pursu-ing safe operations. It is important to organize regularmeetings with all workers with the purpose to refreshknowledge and explain the purpose of each procedure orsafety system. Preventive activities generally render posi-tive results in occupational safety and health protection.

5. CONCLUSION

Today, it is a general practice that exploration operatorshire specialised service contractors for execution of drill-ing and other oilfield services, thus the scope of HSE ac-tivities expanded. Drilling operations are frequentlyexecuted in undeveloped countries and the works areusually contracted with subcontractors offering the low-est price. On the other side, undeveloped countries insiston maximum engagement of local workforce which lacks

HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT POLICY OF CROSCO... N. REHOROVIÆ AND S. BABIÆ

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appropriate skills and expertise. Such practice led to nu-merous accidents which then caused dissatisfaction oflocal authorities.

Therefore, the focus is shifted to prevention of injuriesduring execution of all drilling operations onshore andparticularly offshore, due to isolation of offshore wellsites and more difficult access in case of emergency. De-spite that, injuries and fatal injuries still happen, al-though to lesser extent. Nevertheless, wideimplementation of occupational safety measures is abso-lutely necessary. It is no wonder then that HSE expertsare wanted by operators and contractors. It is clear thatHSE will continue to have a prominent role in oilindustry.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We express our gratitude to Mr. Zvonko Brkiæ, petroleumengineer, director of Quality and HSE Sector of Croscod.o.o. for his support in preparation of this paper, and toProfessor Zdenko Krištafor, Mining and Petroleum Fac-ulty, for the review of the article.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY1. CROSCO Intranet, QHSE - statistièki podaci

2. Hughes, P., Ferret, E. (2005) Introduction to Health and Safety at Work: TheHandbook for the NEBOSH National General Certificate.

3. Pravilnik o struènoj osposobljenosti za obavljanje odreðenih poslova u rudar-stvu Republike Hrvatske (2000).

4. Zakon o rudarstvu Republike Hrvatske (2009).

5. Zakon o zaštiti na radu Republike Hrvatske (s izmjenama i dopunama) (1996).

6. Zakon o radu Republike Hrvatske (2004).

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Authors:

Ninoslav Rehoroviæ, petroleum engineer, V. Holjevca 14, 10361 Kobiljak,CROSCO Integrated Drilling & Well Services Co., Ltd., Ulica grada Vukovara18, Zagreb, phone: 3652 333. email: ninoslav.rehorovic@crosco.hr

Stevo Babiæ, graduated mechanical engineer, Stanka Andrijeviæa 15,Zagreb, CROSCO Integrated Drilling & Well Services Co., Ltd., Ulica gradaVukovara 18, Zagreb, phone: 3652 333. email: stevo.babic@crosco.hr

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N. REHOROVIÆ AND S. BABIÆ HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT POLICY OF CROSCO...