Despite the pandemic, McDermott was able to reach several safety milestones at its fabrication yards across the world, and collaboration was key
Safety has always been a major concern for the oil and gas industry, but the onset of the pandemic has made it vastly more complex. With project delays and office workers at home, managing health and safety has taken on a different meaning. Despite these challenges, EPC firm McDermott International recently hit 90 million work hours without a lost time incident (LTI) at its Jebel Ali facility in the UAE.
“With a lot of people working from home during the height of the pandemic, their mental well-being and ability to perform their work was a huge concern,” says Shaun Hannam, senior director of QHSES (quality, health, safety, environment and security) for EMEA at McDermott. “The fabrication yard employees are the real heroes, they had to come to work every day, they did not have the option of working from home.”
Ordinarily, working in a fabrication yard presents inherent, physical risks which require strict safety regulations and procedures. “In the yard, we go back to basics,” Hannam says. “It takes a lot of consciousness and consistency in compliance to the work methods we have set in place.” An October 2020 survey by the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) revealed that companies in the oil and gas sector reported 703 lost work day cases in 2019, the vast majority of which (551) involved contractors. Companies participating in the survey lost a combined 21,899 days of work due to injuries.
