The Permian Basin Chapter led by Chair Garrett Dobson, VP Permian & Field Operations Excellence, TechnipFMC hosted a panel moderated by Board Member Sam Sledge, CEO of ProPetro Services, discussing onshore safety in Midland on November 1. The luncheon was held in cooperation with the Onshore Safety Alliance.
President Molly Determan opened the luncheon by welcoming the attendees and giving a brief overview of the association, followed by remarks by Energy Workforce Board Chair Brian Groody, Baker Hughes, who discussed the newly launched SecureWell: Well Control Certification Program.
Anand Jha, Accenture presented a market outlook for the audience, discussing how energy markets are evolving and how it is impacting the industry’s priorities.
“Some of these macro trends of consolidation, lower carbon businesses, capital flows towards low carbon, will mean that the industry has to fundamentally rethink our approach to technology and reskilling/upskilling our workforce.”
Anand Jha, Senior Manager, Accenture
Panelists included Scott Simpson, HSE Supervisor; Chevron; Jeff Atwood, HSE Supervisor, Diamondback Energy; Shad Frazier, Vice President Operations, Endeavor Energy Resources; Marie Gurrero-Luera, HSE Senior Manager, Pioneer Natural Resources; and Casey Sullivan, HSE Supervisor, Continental Resources.
Sledge led the panel in discussing an array of safety topics, from human performance principles, training new employees, as well as driving and emergency logistics, including the differences between Lost-Time Incident Rate (LTIR) vs Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) and serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs).
Frazier said the industry must continue to hold itself accountable for safety on job sites.
“Instead of making a job site just a job to get done, you make the job site a place where continuous improvement can be driven. We have to find out how we make the job safer each and every day, not just rinse and repeat the same old tired patterns.”
Shad Frazier, Vice President, Operations, Endeavor Energy Resources
Atwood discussed human performance principles and how employees can evolve their mindsets to include both safety and efficiency.
“If we can promote slowing down just enough where employees can do the job efficiently instead of fast, they will think about the consequences before they take action, and we create a better safety culture.”
Jeff Atwood, HSE Supervisor, Diamondback Energy
Simpson highlighted investigations and how companies can bring their field staff together to discuss a problem and how it can be solved, learning from those who are on the ground.
“A wise man from Chevron once said, ‘You can blame and punish or you can learn – but you can’t do both.’ And that’s true because if you blame and punish, you stifle learning. That’s easy to say here on this stage, but it’s harder to do in real life. But we have to do our best.”
Scott Simpson, HSE Supervisor, Chevron
All participants emphasized the need for safety training and discussed how to best implement new technologies to prevent training from becoming a check box type of practice.
“You know, I love to look at virtual reality training, I think that’s the wave of the future. If I could train in TikTok’s or Snapchat and things like that with our learning and development, that resonates with the younger workforce that’s coming into the oil and gas industry now.”
Marie Guerrero-Luera, HSE Senior Manager, Pioneer Natural Resources
Panelists also discussed how we could make training more meaningful for participants.
“When it comes to job-specific training, especially HSE training, instead of coming from the existing department, we’ve gotten our operation and leadership involved. When people see that it’s important to their leaders, it has a little bit of a different effect.”
Casey Sullivan, HSE Supervisor, Continental Resources
Thank you to sponsors Estis Compression, Pioneer Natural Resources, ProPetro Services, TechnipFMC and Superior Energy Services, as well as strategic partners Chevron, NexTier Completions Solutions and SLB.
STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Karina Erickson, Communications Director, writes about governmental policies for the Energy Workforce & Technology Council. Click here to subscribe to the Energy Workforce newsletter, which highlights sector-specific issues, best practices, activities and more.
