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Today, Energy Safety Canada released one of its first industry accepted standards, the Common Safety Orientation, to advance worker safety in the oil and gas industry.

Existing general safety orientations differ between Canadian companies, creating duplication in content and training fatigue for workers. The oil and gas industry identified a need to produce a single safety orientation delivered consistently across companies.

Energy Safety Canada mobilized its Safety Standards Council, which represents approximately 70 per cent of activity in Canada’s oil and gas industry across all sectors and company sizes. The Council, a steward in the development of the CSO, also serves as the foundation for broad industry adoption of such standards.

The CSO is an online course that introduces new workers to safe work practices. It incorporates Energy Safety Canada’s 10 Life Saving Rules, which are based on addressing the most at-risk behaviours.

“The purpose of establishing an industry accepted standard is to more efficiently and effectively educate workers on safe work practices. It also makes it easier for workers to move from site to site, and drives complexity and costs out of the system,” says Murray Elliott, President and CEO of Energy Safety Canada.

“A unified approach to oil and gas safety orientations will accelerate improvements in safe work performance, which is expected to result in fewer injuries and incidents,” says Elliott.

Arriving at a single, agreed-upon orientation would not have been possible without the Council’s commitment to support and adopt the CSO, creating a critical mass to lead the way for industry.

“We maintain a registry of over 100 different customer orientations and Weatherford employees can spend hours completing them,” says Dave Reed, Vice President, Canada Region for Weatherford Canada. “The benefit of standardizing to one Common Safety Orientation is consistency for workers.”

The CSO will replace the Electronic General Safety Orientation (eGSO), Petroleum Safety Training (PST) and Basic Safety Orientation (BSO).

Safety Standards Council Member Companies

Aspenleaf Energy Ltd.
Birchcliff Energy Ltd.
Canlin Energy Corporation
Cenovus Energy Inc.
Clean Harbors
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.
Encana Corporation
Ensign Energy Services Inc.
Imperial Oil Ltd.
Precision Drilling Corporation
SAExploration Holdings Inc.
Schlumberger Canada Ltd.
Suncor
Weatherford Canada

About Energy Safety Canada

Energy Safety Canada is the national safety association for the oil and gas industry. We develop and support common industry safety standards, deliver effective learning systems, share data analysis and safety expertise with workers and employers, and advocate for worker health and safety. Our goal is the same as industry’s — zero injuries, zero incidents.