Oilfield
companies and producers taking action to avoid accidents
and liability.
May 2008 [Oil & Gas Inquirer]
Godfrey Budd
The high-tech armaments of the digital age-wireless
communications technology, software, and global position
systems (GPS), among them-are being successfully
harnessed in safety campaigns and initiatives to reduce
the risk of injury faced by people working alone.
Sophisticated electronic mapping systems and satellite
communications are also being successfully applied.
Calgary-based GEOTrac International Inc., which provides
monitoring and safety systems for the mining,
transportation, and energy sectors, started as a firm
providing electronic maps for oil and gas companies.
"The maps were to show personnel, often drivers, where
the roads were. We built this information using a
Google-like system into electronic maps. The maps now
include all lease roads, drill sites, private lease
roads, and main roads. The client can go on a map and
electronically mark other [additional] lease roads,
camps, compressor stations, and other landmarks. The
client can add new information on any site or area that
he needs to," says Kevin MacDonald, VP of marketing and
communications at GEOTrac.
The dispatcher at a client company with a fleet of
trucks can pinpoint the location of every truck in the
fleet by
consulting the map. As well, the map is tied in with a
network of cameras. "You can use it to resolve questions
of road conditions," says MacDonald.
Of course, in the many off-highway areas where oil and
gas personnel perform operations, information on highway
conditions are somewhat beside the point. On the other
hand, topography data on hills, trees, lakes, and rivers
can be helpful. The GEOTrac electronic maps use ESRI, a
global information systems mapping software platform.
The company's electronic maps, which in some ways
resemble standard maps with place names and latitudinal
and longitudinal lines, can be overlain with Google
Earth, providing the kind of topographic information an
operator could find useful.
With a modem "about the size of a packet of cigarettes,"
says MacDonald, the communication system allows for both
a one-way data stream and two way messaging when
installed in a company vehicle. The one-way data stream
can provide a range of up-to-the-minute information to
the dispatch centre on the truck or vehicle's
status-whether it is stopped, idling, travelling, and at
what speed, and so on.
For two-way messaging on safety issues, workers can use
a small, three-inch by four-inch touch screen to notify
the dispatch that they are leaving the truck and how
long they expect to be gone. The time-based notification
system alerts the dispatch if they haven't returned to
the truck on schedule.
For hazardous locations, a portable communicator, which
is in the final stages of development and testing, that
operators take with them when they leave the truck, can
make a critical difference. It is linked up with the
truck's communications system. "It has a motion
detector, so if you haven't moved for two minutes, or
whatever time you set, there is an alert," says
MacDonald.
He says that, increasingly, "producers want service
companies to have a work-alone solution in place
because, if that's done, there's less liability for the
producers. Service companies pay less insurance [as a
result]. The GEOTrac system can, in effect, supervise
driving behaviour by monitoring speed."
Both driving behaviour and liability issues have become
areas of concern in recent years. There are only about a
half-dozen major insurers for trucking in Canada, so if
a firm starts to look accident-prone, premiums can go
through the roof in a hurry.
Liability issues related to workplace accidents already
keep hundreds of litigation lawyers busy in the United
States. In Canada, the area of liability is expected to
become increasingly important for employers as a result
of federal legislation passed in 2004.
The 2004 legislation focuses on the issue of criminal
liability arising from how an employer manages safety in
the workplace in general, not whether a person is
working alone or in the presence of others. In a
precedent-setting ruling that's likely to resonate
across the country, a Quebec judge in March imposed a
$110,000 fine on a Quebec paving company convicted last
December of criminal negligence in the death of an
employee.
Noting that the conviction, which stemmed from the 2004
federal legislation, was the first of its kind in
Canada, the Crown attorney for the case said that
companies would have to ask themselves whether they are
meeting their obligations with respect to safety
practices in the workplace. Companies won't be able to
rely on simply saying that they put up a sign, he said.
The federal legislation sets no maximum fine, but,
according to a National Post story, the judge, in
imposing the $110,000 fine, took into account that the
firm, which employs about 100 people, had pleaded guilty
and spent more than $500,000 to improve safety in its
two factories. No individual was charged because it had
not been possible to identify who was responsible for
disabling a safety device, which probably resulted in
the accident.
In Alberta, the killing of a young woman working alone
at night in a fast food restaurant prompted enactment of
provincial legislation known as "The Working Alone
Amendment". The law was passed about six years ago and
imposes several obligations on employers of people
working alone. These include: identify hazards
associated with working alone, implement related safety
measures, ensure that workers have an effective way of
communicating with their employer or supervisor in the
event of an emergency, and ensure that workers are
trained to do their jobs safely. The Alberta amendment
was modelled on that of four other jurisdictions with
working-alone legislation.
Both legislation and the operational environment itself
show that communications can play a critical role in
ensuring the safety of people working alone in the oil
patch. But, despite the range of land-based cellular and
sophisticated, satellite-based technologies, making it
all work in a cost-effective manner is not without
challenges for both producers and service providers like
GEOTrac and others.
As oil and gas producers continue exploration in the
North and frontier areas, besides high costs, they have
to contend with the region's unique communications
challenges. Many high-orbit satellites, with large
bandwidth for TV stations and satellite phones, remain
stationary over the equator in a geosynchronous orbit.
But the ability of signals from these satellites to
reach around the curvature of the earth to provide
coverage in the North is limited. Their high bandwidth
makes them costly and their location above the equator
makes them a poor candidate for communications in the
Far North, as the slightest barrier- building, tree, or
hill-can disrupt the signal, says MacDonald.
Instead, GEOTrac uses the Iridium network, a
constellation of more than 60 communications satellites
with spares in orbit and on the ground. It allows
worldwide voice and data communications using hand-held
satellite phones. The Iridium network is unique in that
it covers the entire planet, including both the north
and south polar regions. "It's the ideal network for oil
and gas companies operating in the North," says
MacDonald.
Automating the monitoring process has become central to
the communications systems used to keep people working
alone safe. Its advocates say that it's both more
effective and reliable. "In the old days, people used an
informal system or check-in service. The lone workers
would call in and say how long they would be and when
they would call again. We looked for a more automated
system and services," says Brad McIntosh, a partner in
Lone Worker Safety Solutions.
The firm uses a proprietary system called SafetyLine,
available from Vancouver-based Tsunami Solutions Ltd.
McIntosh describes SafetyLine as a fully integrated and
automated voice, data, and GPS location tracking system
with a lone-worker monitoring centre.
Workers phone in to a centre at the start of a shift.
Then, the automated check-in system will call the lone
worker on a cell phone, land line, satellite phone, or
other wireless communications device at predetermined
intervals set by the worker over the phone at, for
example, the start of the shift. Assuming no emergency,
the worker responds to automated check-ins through the
shift and logs out at the end of the shift. "We have
modelled our application to help companies comply with
legislation," says Thomas Touhey, president of Tsunami
Solutions.
The monitoring system operates or is available all the
time and responds to any unconfirmed emergency. The
SafetyLine system signals a lone worker emergency
because either the worker has requested help, which can
be done by hitting a preprogrammed "panic button," or
the worker failed to report that all was well.
Although the monitoring centre is automated, it is also
staffed, so that the status of possible emergencies is
properly verified, and, in the event of an actual
emergency being confirmed, designated client company
personnel are called as per the company's emergency
plan. The monitoring centre operator records the time,
date, comments, and other relevant information. Emails,
phone calls, and any other available means are used to
make contact until a response is received.
The automated side of the system, says Touhey, ensures
that regular monitoring is done efficiently while real
or possible emergencies are not missed when they do
occur. "Under a previous, fully manual system, it took
one person working full-time [at a monitoring centre] to
look after 45 people. There was no system to track
people after regular business hours, when you are more
likely to lose someone. Monitoring staff were too busy
checking people who called and often had no chance to
check who had not called. There would also be clerical
errors. This was a system that used to be in place," he
says.
With the automated system, workers speed dial into a
server at the monitoring centre with their preprogrammed
ID. The system proceeds on an automated basis until a
possible emergency is flagged, when the system
immediately contacts a staffer at the monitoring centre.
"The system also allows for lots of add-ons like GPS and
LBS (location-based services) or SPOT satellite
messenger. There are lots of devices but the key is to
integrate them in a system that works. You can go from a
very basic system to a complete system with GPS and
man-down alert," says Touhey.
The SPOT messenger from Globalstar that Touhey mentions
is a portable device that weighs about half a pound and
became available in Canada earlier this year. Aimed at
outdoor enthusiasts, adventurers, and lone workers,
Globalstar's SPOT messenger, sold at London Drugs, is a
one-way communications device that enables users to
inform friends or a call centre of their location and
includes a ‘911 alert' that notifies a call centre in
case of emergency.
A growing number of producers, service companies, and
transport companies are choosing from the expanding
range of communications systems available on the market
that support lone workers. "We are using the GEOTrac
system to eliminate the worry, and it gives us the
capability to be in touch at all times via satellite. We
are able to know where each truck is at all times via a
detailed map. We have had the system since November 2005
and had the Iridium system for about six months," says
Kari Brown-John, the compliance and safety administrator
at Energetic Services Inc.
The Fort St. John-based oilfield service firm has a
fleet of 120 trucks.
