Refining oil is a process by which crude petroleum is transformed into more useful products such as gasoline. It is a dangerous process, one that results in hundreds of safety incidents annually that are reported to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). However, while oil refinery incidents like explosions, fires and fatalities have prompted fundamental improvements to safety procedures in other countries, it appears that the U.S. is not catching on quite as quickly.
U.S. refineries sustain far higher financial losses than EU counterparts
The United States sustains financial losses from refinery incidents at a rate that is three times higher than the losses sustained by its European Union counterparts, according to a 2006 report by Swiss Re, the world’s second-largest reinsurer. In 2012 Swiss Re officials reported to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board that the incident gap between U.S. refineries and others across the world had only widened since … Read more...
The Oil and Gas sector is definitely creating jobs and increasing revenues but it’s also opening up the gates to more injuries and fatalities across North America. In fact, in Texas, it’s been reported that more oil and gas field service and drilling workers were killed on the job than in any other profession from 2007 to 2011, according to an analysis done by the Houston Chronicle. Injuries are also in abundance and range from lacerations to partial amputation of fingers and chemical burns.
With an array of oil-rich states, each with its own set of rules and regulations, there’s no shortage of oil and gas news across the nation. Here’s a roundup of the week’s top five oil and gas stories:
As in other high-risk sectors, workplace safety is of utmost importance in the Oil and Gas industry, where the smallest of near-misses and at-risk behaviours can result in devastating consequences for frontline workers, not to mention catastrophic environmental impacts. In light of this, it’s hard to believe some oil and gas companies still rely on archaic, paper-based systems for EHS management. Yet in spite of the adoption of state-of-the-art EHS management systems by some industry leaders, paper- and spreadsheet-based systems are still in widespread use.
Check out the recent Intelex article, 
