POSITION FEBRUARY

STATEMENT 2023

2022 safety trends and responses

Introduction
In May 2022, the IOGP Safety Committee published a statement defining its strategic objectives and identifying
key focus areas to achieve those objectives. Since that time, the global operating environment has been
subject to a range of unprecedented conditions that have the potential to impact safety performance. Further,
some public non-IOGP data points in 2022, including increased road traffic fatalities in one country, increased
aviation incidents and fatalities in non-IOGP Member oil and gas aviation activities, and feedback from several
IOGP Members suggest that key safety indicators for our industry are moving in the wrong direction. While the
causation is not yet clear, insights from the Safety Committee indicate lingering effects from the COVID-19
pandemic. In addition, there is a clear increase in industry activity, with associated aggressive hiring and
reduction in collective experience levels. This is exacerbated by the geopolitical situation, both in terms of direct
stress on both individuals and their organizations, and the workload increase due to energy security imperatives.

In response to these observations and to provide timely feedback and analysis, the Safety Committee
undertook a survey of Safety Committee Member Companies and a review of safety events in 2022. The goal
was to determine any common trends and possible actions. This paper outlines the results of that review and
highlights potential short term action areas for the attention of individual IOGP Members and the industry at
large. It complements the position statement issued by the Safety Committee in May 2022.

2022 safety performance learning

Safety Committee Member survey
The Safety Committee surveyed its participants to determine if they were seeing increasing or decreasing safety
performance trends in 2022, compared to previous years. A number of metrics were used, from Fatal Accident
Rate (FAR), Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR), Lost Time incident Rate (LTIR), and Process Safety Events (PSE).
Whilst the survey did not find the same trends across all respondents, it did identify the following general trends:
• Fatal accidents and LTIR increased among most respondents
• Incident severity increased
• TRIR and High Potential Incident Frequency were relatively static
• Tier 1 & 2 Process Safety Events decreased

2022 safety events review

The trend of increasing fatal incidents and an increasing severity of events, despite there not being an
overall increase in event numbers, was reinforced during an event sharing session at an October 2022 Safety
Committee meeting, with total recordable injury numbers up to that point in the year exceeding the numbers
from the preceding two years. While the 2022 safety performance data is, as of February 2023, still under review,
the Safety Committee anticipates an increase in the number of incidents, including fatal incidents, compared

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to the numbers from 2020 and 2021, using comparable taxonomies and scope. To enable timely company
responses to what appears to be a worsening trend, the Safety Committee discussed causal common factors
and possible intervention strategies.

2022 possible causation and recommended actions

The diagram below indicates the most common factors associated with the events discussed, and their potential
impact on safety performance. First, Safety Committee Members report that COVID-19 effects may be a factor,
possibly manifesting themselves as distractions and also general fatigue. Leadership visibility at the front line
remains a concern as the industry transitions out of the pandemic. Second, increasing energy prices and societal
need for energy security have driven an increase in activity levels across the energy sector. Hiring has increased,
and inactive assets have been reactivated, with associated risk. Last, the current geopolitical situation is clearly
one of lesser stability and societal polarizations, where energy security has come to the forefront. It is thought
this aspect may add further stress to the workforce with associated potential for fatigue and distraction events.

Geopolitical
Increased activity
Residual COVID-19 instability
to ensure
fatigue and stress causing uncertainty
energy security
and stress

Increased workload and

turnover causing distractions
and reduced workforce capacity

Reports of increased
task complexity with a
less experienced workforce

Ineffective control of work

Lack of risk recognition

Increased incident
severity and fatalities

Figure 1: Potential causal factors in the increased trend in personal safety incidents

Some other highlighted common causal factors included:

• A lack of onsite management engagement and assurance since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,
resulting in a perceived change of culture, misalignment of business and safety priorities, and gaps in
leadership knowledge of “work as done”
• Increased administrative workload taking focus away from core safety-critical responsibilities, reducing
individual capacity to manage risk
• Continued complexity for contractors from clients’ still misaligned standards, requirements, and lack of
implementation of IOGP guidance such as the Life-Saving Rules
• The increase in activity levels has resulted in an expanded and less experienced workforce across
operators, contractors, and suppliers
• New leaders from other sectors with different safety cultures have not been effectively onboarded into the
oil and gas industry’s ways of working
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Following discussion of the above factors and the current situation, the Safety Committee suggests the
following actions, for individual company attention, to help address the situation.

An enhanced and deliberate focus on activities with potential to cause permanent impairment
injuries or fatalities
Focusing on the highest-risk, safety-critical activities, and reduce front line exposure to more general, non-
safety critical business activities. In terms of specific focus, incidents with dropped objects are an area of
immediate concern. The Safety Committee believes that onsite leadership and assurance activities should focus
on ‘work as done’ as opposed to ‘work as imagined’ in procedures and guidelines.

Create safety awareness in the moment, at the point of risk

Companies should ensure pre-job meetings are impactful, not over-proceduralized, and have a local, relevant
focus. The complexity and relevance of the permit to work systems should be challenged and stop and start
work authority reinforced. The Safety Committee recommends the adoption and communication of the IOGP
Life-Saving Rules and Start Work Checks, which are valuable resources for empowering workers to intervene
in unsafe circumstances. Lastly, after-action reviews or debriefs covering safety-critical activities enhance a
culture of learning.

Build the safety capacity of the workforce

The Safety Committee believes that robust mental health support programs will help build resilience to risk in
these difficult societal circumstances. The five human performance principles will help develop a more resilient
work culture, driven by informed leadership. Leaders should strengthen their focus on learning from human
performance analysis in investigations, and routinely discuss this with the workforce. Given the increased number
of new hires and new activities being contracted for, a stronger focus on onboarding of new resources and
implementation of IOGP Report 423 – HSE management guidelines for working together in a contract environment.

Contractor engagement
With the increased levels of industry activity, the Safety Committee believes oil and gas companies and their
supply chains can become more resilient to risk by adopting a more collaborative business partnering approach
between contracted partners. Companies need to understand the specific workplace pressures on contractor
staff and act to address these issues. This needs to be underpinned by joint leadership engagement, increased
recognition of our people and partners, and finding mutually beneficial ways of working. We believe this will
produce psychologically safe workers, who feel confident when sharing and discussing the pressures and
challenges of their workplaces. Highly transient groups of workers may need special attention and focus during
onboarding activities.

Our aim is to help initiate timely and effective action to drive continued improvements in our industry safety
performance. Pressure from external conditions, like post-pandemic stress, activity increase and geopolitical
aspects is expected to remain or increase in intensity over the next year. IOGP Members are requested to share
and discuss the contents of this paper within their safety leadership teams and take appropriate action.

The IOGP Safety Committee will continue to monitor and compile safety performance data and will update our
recommendations as new information becomes available.

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