By Lana Cunningham
Recalcitrant, stubborn, and hard-headed are just a few of the adjectives that could be used to describe oil field workers who refuse to wear required safety devices when on the job. “Dead” could be another word for them.
Safety training companies and equipment abound in the Permian Basin and offer every service or equipment necessary to keep employees safe. Getting owners to utilize the training required by the Federal Occupational and Health Administration and employees to follow those rules is another matter.
“We were dealing with one guy,” said Steve Marshall, general manager of Safety Solutions, LLC, in Midland. “There were dead animals all around the pumpjacks” and the man refused to wear a monitoring device.
“I’ve done this for 40 years and I’ve never had a problem,” the man told Marshall.
Says Marshall: “He fought us tooth and nail. We’re in the ‘what if’ business. If one thing goes wrong, it could be your life. With a monitoring device, you know you will be able to go home at night.”
If it’s not employees fighting against the rules, it’s the companies–at least sometimes. Some employers want to offer limited training at their office; others complain about the cost of bringing in certified trainers.
“It’s just the cost of doing business,” said Darrel Canada, president and master trainer of Canada & Associates, based in Abilene. He noted that even farmers who hire outside employees must follow OSHA guidelines. “If they have fewer than 10 employees, the training can be verbal, such as ‘If you see fire, run!’ With 11 or more employees, all training must be written. A lot of people have no idea what type of safety training they should be doing until it’s too late. Some employers will roll the dice and gamble.”
Some employers offer an eight-hour awareness session. Canada said he has to teach 22 segments in that time, which breaks down into 15 minutes for each part. “Fifteen minutes on confined space is not enough time. And for H2S training, they need at least four hours.”
Both Safety Solutions and Canada & Associates offer a wide range of consulting, training classes, and equipment to comply with OSHA requirements and to keep employees going home at night. Those courses can include H2S, Hazard Communication (Right to Know law), Personal Protective Equipment, Basic Safety Orientation, HAZMAT (hazardous materials), Chemical Health Hazards/Routes of Entry, Emergency Action Plan, Fall Protection/Scaffolding Regulations, Lockout/Tagout, OSHA General Industry, OSHA Construction, Confined Spaces, and Heat Related Illness, among others.
With the boom in the energy industry in recent years and the accompanying increase in injuries and fatalities among oilfield workers, OSHA in November 2013 called for a Stand Down. More than 600 people attended an Oil and Gas Environmental Conference held at the University of Texas at Arlington on December 3. The format allowed for company representatives to exchange best practices and ideas on environmental performance and regulatory compliance. A video aired at the conference featured David Bates with OSHA’s Oklahoma City office stating, “We want to see workers go home safely each day. In response to the rising fatality rate, we are asking workers to commit a short period of time to evaluate their operations and to engage in active discussion.” That voluntary Stand Down at a job site would allow time for all workers to inspect their equipment and practices.
Fatalities due to severe burns, falls from a rig, improper ropes, lack of escape plan, or lack of fire resistant clothing were cited by OSHA officials in the video as recent examples of accidents that could have been prevented, thus saving lives or eliminating severe injuries.
OSHA offers numerous training classes at its Education Center based at UT-Arlington and also in Midland.
Companies throughout the Permian Basin, such as Safety Solutions, LLC, or Canada & Associates, were founded to provide the training and equipment to keep companies in compliance with OSHA standards and, most importantly, eliminate fatalities.
Safety Solutions’ doors were opened about six years ago by founders Cliff Strasner and his son, Craig. At first they offered shower trailers for the job sites. They quickly expanded into offering a variety of safety equipment and training. “They were in the right place at the right time,” said Marshall, who moved to West Texas from Oregon in June 2012 to handle the fire safety training before being promoted to general manager.
Canada took a different route to the safety training business. In his work as a police officer in Snyder, he was asked by various companies to conduct H2S training or CPR classes. Later, in his work as an officer in Crosbyton, Canada learned from the area OSHA officer about chemicals, such as anhydrous ammonia, that are so volatile they could actually be used for making bombs. He began working on his certification as a safety training official and then went full-time in 1996. Today, he has offices in Abilene, Midland, Carrizo Springs, and Snyder and recently conducted a training session in India.
“My bread and butter is the safety training,” he said. “I know the liabilities involved; I do a lot of accident investigations. Sometimes the operator calls me to do the investigation, sometimes the drilling company, and sometimes the deceased man’s family.”
Safety experts can assist a firm in designing emergency action plans. Marshall said his fire professionals will go into a new building and show the owner what needs to be added to meet local codes, including signage, striping, and training manuals.
Canada explained the need for some of the courses: “There are people who go into small spaces and don’t realize a permit is required. The employees are supposed to identify those hazards involved, but some don’t do it. They see it’s a confined space, but not that it is permit required. A rescue team should be on stand-by” in case the employee needs to be pulled out. The Confined Spaces course addresses these issues.
Fall Protection training is required for people working on a rig floor, according to Canada. In the Personal Protection Equipment, employees learn how to put harnesses on and wear them properly.
One issue he encounters during training often comes during the H2S training. “The employees have to shave or they cannot be H2S certified,” Canada said. “OSHA says they cannot have facial hair. The moustache has to be cut to the corners of the mouth. There can’t be any hair in the seal. Sometimes, we’ll find men have grown beards or goatees after being certified. We’ll tell them ‘you’ll die because you can’t get your mask on.’ For the employee to be on a lease, he has to be in compliance with OSHA.”
Employers are being held accountable if they do not adhere to the regulations. “According to OSHA, an employer must furnish a place of employment free of recognizable hazards,” Canada said. “In Texas, you can prove gross negligence if an employer did not do the right training.” He cited the example of a Houston employer being sentenced to a year in prison after two employees died from exposure to hydrogen sulfide.
Safety News Alert reported that Matthew Bowman, former president of Port Arthur Chemical and Environmental Services (PACES), was sentenced in November 2013 to 12 months in prison and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine in the deaths of the two men who weren’t properly protected from hazardous chemicals.
“This guy put his drivers at risk,” Canada said. “They had no H2S training. One died in 2008 and one in 2009.”
Technology, as it is expanding and evolving throughout the world, is changing the safety industry. Canada’s firm offers training on iron rough necks, which is an automated process to feed pipe into a well bore (to “make up” pipe) or break it up as it is being taken out. This can be handled from an automated driller’s cabin. “The driller has cameras all around and can use controllers to move the pipe,” Canada said. “This keeps people off the floor. Younger people are very coordinated at doing this—they have the eye-hand coordination that is needed.
Marshall was excited about a new gas detection system offered by Safety Solutions. “Our equipment has texting capabilities. We can program in every person’s phone number and when gas reaches the monitors, a text will be sent to them. They will know what levels of gas. They won’t have to be on the site to know gas is there. Sometimes, we’re calling the people before they call us. We are putting this system in numerous locations, including a tank battery site where someone is not there all the time.” The employee will know before he gets to the scene that he must wear the proper equipment.
“This H2S gas… the stronger it gets the less you smell it. And then your lungs turn to mush,” Wallace said.
“That’s what frustrates me about the old mentality… people who think that none of these devices are needed.”