The International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) has released its 2021 safety report, and fatalities and injuries are both up from 2020 levels.
Against the background of a 5% increase in work hours reported, the number of fatalities has increased from 14 in 2020 to 20 in 2021. The 20 fatalities occurred in 15 separate incidents.
The overall total recordable injury rate (fatalities, lost work day cases, restricted work day cases, and medical treatment cases) was 0.77, 10% higher than in 2020 (0.70).
The overall lost time injury rate (fatalities and lost work day cases) was 0.22, unchanged from 2020.
Participating IOGP member companies reported 580 lost work day cases (injuries resulting in at least one day off work). Of that total, 453 incidents were contractor-related and 127 incidents were company-related.
114 cases, 20% of the total, were categorized as “slips and trips (at same height).” Results from 2020 showed 99 cases, accounting for 18% of the total. “Struck by (not dropped object)” accounted for 106 cases, 18% of the total. 2020 saw 91 cases, 17% of the total.
IOGP has been collecting safety incident data from its member companies globally since 1985. The annual reports provide trend analysis, benchmarking, and the identification of areas and activities on which efforts should be focused to bring about the greatest improvements in performance. The IOGP incident reporting system covers worldwide exploration and production operations, both onshore and offshore, and includes incidents involving both member companies and their contractor employees.
The 2021 safety data, as well as the data from previous years, can be accessed through IOGP’s dedicated data site. The data site also has IOGP’s process safety, land transportation safety, aviation safety, environmental performance, and health leading indicators data. The site allows users to sort, compare, and analyze selected data over multiple years.
Fatalities
The 20 fatalities in 2021 resulted in a fatal accident rate (FAR) of 0.75, 36% higher than last year’s figure of 0.55. The company and contractor FAR are 0.29 and 0.90, respectively. Onshore and offshore FAR are 0.79 and 0.6, respectively.
Each reported fatal incident is allocated a work activity and incident cause. With regard to the incident cause, 30% of the fatalities reported in 2021 were the result of incidents categorized as “Assault or Violent Act.”
The activity with the highest number of fatalities reported by the IOGP member companies is “Transport—Land” (35%), with seven fatalities as a result of two separate incidents. Six of the fatalities were related to a single “Assault or Violent Act” incident.
Five fatalities (25%) were reported in five separate incidents in the “Maintenance, Inspection, Testing” category, and three fatalities in three separate incidents were reported in the “Construction, Commissioning, Decommissioning” activity category.