THE news last week that Caribbean Surgery Inc. (CSI) is partnering with the Canadian company, Safework Solutions to launch the Caribbean Safework Solutions Inc. (CSSI) has many Guyanese considering safety and its role in Guyana’s new oil-and-gas industry.

According to Stabroek News, the company will be the first internationally-recognised health, safety and environmental firm in Guyana, and will focus on training programmes for those who want to work in the industry.

The oil-and-gas industry operates in some of the most difficult environments on earth, from deserts and jungles to the stormy frigid waters of the North Atlantic. Companies must be prepared to prevent, mitigate, and respond to accidents or natural disasters deep underwater, far offshore, and during hurricanes and blizzards.

Safety is, therefore, a key concern for international oil-and-gas companies, impacting public perception, employee morale, the efficiency and productivity of their operations, and their financial bottom line. Many of today’s major oil producing firms have a decades-long tradition of implementing their own stringent safety measures to keep workers safe.

It’s important that companies continue to take workplace safety extremely seriously, and that governments continue to ensure they do. International operators generally do so and, thankfully for Guyana, Exxon has a strong safety culture across its operations.

According to the company website, it has a comprehensive set of governing ideas on how safety should be incorporated throughout its business.
The ExxonMobil Operations Integrity Management System (OIMS) is an 11-part framework for examining and dealing with risk across different operations. This overarching process covers everything, from personnel and process safety to product stewardship, transportation, and emergency preparedness and preparation.

Since 2000, the company has reduced the rate of workforce “lost-time incident rates” by more than 80 per cent. This includes any type of injury that leads to a worker being off the job for any amount of time.
During that time, the company also won awards for environmental stewardship from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Gulf of Mexico Program, and for workplace safety from the U.S. National Safety Council.

Offshore oil extraction has its own particular set of challenges around worker safety and environmental stewardship due to the inherent challenges that come with operating in an open-ocean environment. As a result, offshore safety systems are particularly robust, and incorporate many layers of redundancy and emergency systems.

Strong safety practices also require extensive personnel training; that’s where companies like Safework or others come in. The company told reporters at its initial launch that its training programs will include things like hazardous materials protocols, and special skills for working in confined spaces.

The formation of this type of company, hopefully, signals to the world and to potential investors that Guyana’s emerging oil industry and local businesses are taking safety seriously.