Contractor Safety

Contractors are a vital part of our workforce, performing much of the hands-on work drilling wells and constructing pipelines and facilities. Our business has seasonal and short-term swings in activity, which can make it difficult for our company and those companies that work with us to retain experienced staff familiar with our safety programs and procedures. Developing close relationships with contracting companies helps us manage this together through a common focus on safety.

The frequency of injuries to our contractors has decreased steadily over time with an overall improvement of 20 percent since 2007. To continue this trend, we are implementing industry-leading contractor safety programs. A new contractor health and safety assessment tool allows us to track each contracting company that provides staff whose work may put them at risk to:

• Understand the contractor’s capabilities and commitment to safety
• Review their health and safety performance
• Verify their safety programs are compliant with legislation applicable to their work type

If the assessment tool identifies gaps in safety management, we work with the contracting company to move them towards health and safety excellence. Although we planned to have all contractors enrolled in the system in 2008, we have not yet achieved this and will strive for 100 percent enrolment in 2010.