American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2016 - 54

SpecialReport: HS&E

HS&E Advancements Enhance Safety
By Danny Boyd
Special Correspondent
Innovations in equipment, systems,
worker care and training are enabling
operators and service companies to enhance health, safety and environmental
programs while holding the line on costs.
The overarching objective for providers
of HS&E-related solutions is to make
the exploration, drilling, completion and
production world a safer place by mitigating work site operational risks to
protect employees and the environment,
all while keeping projects on schedule
and on budget.
The latest advancements include
portable shelters for well site personnel,
improved lighting systems for hazardous
locations, "fit-for-duty" procedures to
identify potential worker health issues
so conditions can be addressed with medical treatment before an emergency arises
on the job site, new safety and well
control training processes, cloud-based
solutions to remotely monitor the locations
of employees and vehicles, next-generation
automated drill pipe handling technology,
and wireless gas detection and monitoring
capabilities.
Mother Nature is always a wild card

in oil and gas operations. Weather can
pose serious risks to workers located far
from a permanent structure and exposed
to the elements-especially during the
spring and summer severe weather season.
To address this serious safety issue,
Red Dog Shelters has developed a rapiddeployment, mobile storm and blast-resistant tornado shelter for application in
remote workplaces. "Red Dog shelters
are unique in that they are mobile tornado
shelters, and they use the force of the
wind as their primary anchoring factor,"
says Vice President Marc Gilmour. "Using
the wind to anchor a storm shelter is
much more reliable than using earth anchors to hold it in place. You never have
to anchor Red Dog shelters, which means
they are portable and reliable."
The newest addition to the Red Dog
Shelter product line is the trailer-mounted
Tow Dog™. Able to accommodate up to
12 workers, Gilmour says the Tow Dog
is truly mobile and can be pulled to location easily by a three-quarter ton truck.
With the use of hydraulics, the shelter
can be fully operational within a matter
of seconds, and is just as easily decommissioned and relocated as needed.
The larger Big Dog™ can accommo-

Like the larger Big Dog™ shelter that accommodates 32 crew members, the new Tow
Dog™ from Red Dog Mobile Shelters can withstand the destructive force of an EF5 tornado while keeping workers safe from explosions, extreme temperatures, hail and lightning. Featuring an aerodynamic anchoring design that uses the force of the wind to
secure the shelter to the ground, the trailer-mounted unit accommodates up to 12 and
can be pulled to a worksite by a three-quarter ton truck.

54 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

date 32 crew members and is similarly
anchored aerodynamically. "Our design
turns the destructive force of the wind
into a benefit," Gilmour explains. "The
harder the wind blows, the more securely
the shelter is fixed to the ground."
The patented design causes air to flow
over the curved roof of the unit, concentrating an area of low pressure along the
peak. Red Dog shelters are anchored to
the ground in the same way a suction
cup sticks to a window, but with considerably more force.
Both shelter models include air conditioners and heaters, rapid cool-down
stations, and proprietary Crew-Alert™
tornado and lightning warning systems.
Retractable desks and benches allow the
units to be used as remote office space.
"Our units meet or beat our expectations when tested under extreme conditions. Blast tested by the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, the Big
Dog will withstand a 1 million-pound
dead load without failure, making it the
strongest mobile, blast-resistant module
available. The units were awarded an
EF5 tornado rating from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency,"
Gilmour relates.
According to FEMA guidelines, EF5
is the most severe tornado classification
level with wind speeds in excess of 200
miles an hour and enough force to damage
even reinforced concrete structures.
Red Dog Shelters can be leased or
purchased, and are moved easily from
location to location as needed, Gilmour
adds. "Keeping workers safe is our main
goal. The time to think about weather
and blast safety is before you have a
problem. Red Dog shelters on the job
site give you and your workers peace of
mind," he says. "Red Dog shelters will
save lives."
LED Lighting
Larson Electronics continues to advance
its line of explosion proof LED lights
and fixtures with an eye to providing increasingly improved lighting for hazardous
location protection for the offshore industry
and protecting rig workers from the intense
heat emitted by traditional lighting, says
Brandon Lesley, creative director.
Larson Electronics' product line includes explosion-proof blasting lights,
hazardous location lights, intrinsically

American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2016

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