Industry Safety

​Colorado oil and natural gas operators are an integral part of one of the safest industries in the country. Over the past decade, the oil and natural gas industry’s incident rate has decreased by 41 percent, while doubling the size of its workforce and increasing overall production and the number of drilling rigs. 

​The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the oil and natural gas industry is safer than construction, agriculture, manufacturing, leisure and hospitality and educational and health services.

In 2017, the rate of job-related injuries and illnesses for the oil and natural gas industry was 1.7 per 100 full-time workers compared to a rate of 2.8 for the entire U.S. private sector. Incident rates in the oil and natural gas industry have continued to decline year over year.

Incidence Rates of Occupational Injuries by Industry

Source: United States Bureau of Labor Statistic

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Industry's Commitment to Safety

Prevention

• Operations are intentionally designed to reduce the risk of injury and incident.
  
• Many operations are monitored 24/7 and are designed to automatically shut in remotely, further preventing risk of injuries and incidents.
  
• Anyone who comes on an active site has stop-work authority if they see anything unsafe occurring.

Training

• Colorado employees attend regular, mandatory safety training sessions.
• Operators conduct spontaneous safety drills in coordination with local responders to ensure everyone has the skills and confidence to effectively 

Training

• Through innovation, applied learnings and tailoring operations in ways that benefit communities and improve the safety of employees.
• Applying best safety practices and train employees on incident prevention.
• Serving as a resource to community first responders on incident responses.
• Engaging in active campaigns like Colorado811 to educate excavators and the general public on the industry’s underground infrastructure of pipelines to avoid incident and injury.

Additional Resources & Information

American Petroleum Institute (API) | www.api.org
United States Department of Labor (BLS) | www.bls.gov

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