Oil Field Insurers Incentivize Best Practices For Maintaining Well Control By Nick Vaccaro Special Correspondent " Safety first " is more than a mantra in the oil and gas industry; it is a fundamental necessity in a business that is intensely scrutinized from all angles. Protecting people, property and the environment is integral to having a license to operate, and nothing is more important than getting personnel safely on and off the well site and home to their families at the end of the day. Safety cultures and quality assurance programs have been birthed from mistakes made in the past, and proactive strategies to purposefully mitigate any and all possible risks has become the order of the day. As a result, insurance companies are partnering with oil and gas companies to identify and manage risk exposures in every aspect of day-to-day business-from driving and vehicle maintenance programs to drilling and fracturing operational practices. In the area of well control, while well control contractors were once thought of as emergency response service providers, well control specialists and insurance companies are working together to proactively provide training and monitoring solutions to help oil and gas companies achieve a " perfect zero " by avoiding a single recordable safety incident or loss of well control incident. DECEMBER 2022 61