Launched in May 2019 to deliver critical safety information to offshore oil and gas workers, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s (BSEE) BSEE!Safe text notification service now has more than 5,300 subscribers.
The initiative, which has delivered more than 63,479 safety-related text messages, aligns with President Trump’s Executive Order Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy, driving safe and environmentally sustainable energy exploration and production on the Outer Continental Shelf.
“BSEE is the first safety regulator in the world to deliver critical safety information directly to offshore workers through text messaging,” said Scott Angelle, BSEE director. “Access to potentially life saving information is now at their fingertips.”
BSEE!Safe is part of the bureau’s strategy to supplement regulation with innovative and collaborative programs.
The BSEE!Safe texts contain links to BSEE’s published Safety Alerts and Bulletins, which include lessons learned and recommendations from incidents and near misses on offshore oil and gas facilities.
“This program has been a game changer,” said Gregg Falgout, president and chief executive officer of Island Operating Company. “It connects the men and women doing the work, day in and day out, with the latest, unfiltered safety recommendations, based on real world events. This has reinforced our Zone Zero safety culture by having our regulator directly validate that safety is the overarching concern in everything we do. We joined this program in 2019, and it’s no coincidence that we just celebrated our best safety performance year regarding lost time accidents. Said another way, no lost time accidents in 2019. This program works.”
“There is nothing more important to us than worker safety,” said Andrew Kershaw, Occidental Petroleum’s executive vice president for offshore. “Being able to directly contact Gulf of Mexico workers with the latest BSEE alerts is invaluable and significantly increases awareness of best practices that help keep our valued workforce safe.”
BSEE has issued 31 Safety Alerts and Bulletins since the launch in May 2019 that address topics ranging from improperly bypassed safety devices, fire risk from saturated glycol handling, and reporting unsafe work conditions.