The International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) Life-Saving Rules are now considered industry good practice. Each rule has a simple icon and guidance to explain why it is important and on which aspects workers and supervisors should focus. The rules are intended to supplement and support existing company management systems, programs, and policies, but are directed at the actions individual front-line workers and supervisors need to undertake to keep themselves and their workmates safe. Each rule is also linked to controls and barriers which, if used properly, can prevent or avoid fatal incidents.

Shell provides an example of how successful and sustainable the implementation of a robust set of Life-­Saving Rules can be. The company has seen a 75% reduction in fatalities and a 35% reduction in lost-time injuries since its rules were introduced in 2009.

Analysis of 1,484 fatal incidents reported by IOGP member companies over the past 20 years indicates that adopting, conforming to, and enforcing the simple IOGP rules may well have prevented many of these fatalities.

Gordon Ballard is executive director of the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers. He joined the association in January 2016 after spending 34 years working with Schlumberger on four continents. He became Schlumberger’s UK chair in 2005. He has also served as chair of the UK’s Oil and Gas Industry Council and was co-chair of the industry trade association, Oil & Gas UK. He remains chair of OPITO International, the upstream oil and gas skills organization, and is an independent board director of Oil Spill Response Limited. Ballard graduated from the University of Glasgow with a BsC degree in civil engineering and holds a masters degree in petroleum engineering from Heriot-Watt University.