Objectives

The oil and gas industry works with high pressure and flammable fluids often at the cutting edge of technology and in sometimes hostile operating environments.

In this industry, carelessness, recklessness and ignorance can cause tragedy. But for more than a decade, the petroleum industry's safety performance has been better than those in the construction, transport, manufacturing and mining industries.

Over the last few years, the oil and gas industry has worked collaboratively to deliver significant improvements in safety performance.

In 2009, hours worked across the industry increased, yet a 26% improvement in lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) was achieved (recorded as 1.22). An 11% improvement in the total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) was also realised (recorded as 6.02).
In 2010, the APPEA Board reviewed its health, safety and operations priorities and agreed to develop a new collaborative safety strategy for the Australian oil and gas industry. This strategy will focus on major accident events and on personal safety. Engagement with oil and gas contractors will be a major component.
APPEA's Incident Reporting Guidelines also help ensure that safety performance can be tracked for the entire industry, and can broken down into each of the major sectors (offshore and onshore, including the coal seam gas sector).

 

Health, Safety & Operations Committee

The APPEA HSO Committee meets quarterly. It aims to: promote high standards of occupational health and safety and operational efficiency among petroleum explorers, producers and contractors; facilitate the ongoing improvement of industry safety performance; and provide a forum for exchanging ideas on government regulations and industry standards covering safety and operations. For more information on the APPEA HSO Committee, including membership and the current work program, please contact Leanne Drewitt, Senior Project Officer – People Strategies.

 

APPEA HSO strategic priorities

  • Process safty/asset integrity
  • Emergency management
  • Competence
  • Contractor engagement
  • Sharing lessons and good practice

 

Key safety programs for 2011

  • Hydrocarbon releases
  • Fatigue management
  • Managing ageing assets
  • Data capture, analysis & sharing on process safety