Oil and Gas Occupational Health and Safety Compliance Training Course

Course overview

Oil and gas operations expose personnel to high-consequence hazards that cannot be managed through generic safety procedures alone. Drilling, production, well intervention, processing, terminal, pipeline and turnaround activities require supervisors and HSE professionals to connect legal duties, operating standards and worksite controls before an incident occurs. This course addresses the practical challenge of maintaining compliance across contractors, changing work scopes, simultaneous operations, ageing assets and remote locations while producing evidence that regulators, clients and internal assurance teams can examine.

Participants learn to interpret occupational health and safety requirements in an oil and gas context, including ISO 45001, OSHA requirements, API RP 54 and IOGP guidance. They apply hazard identification methods such as HAZID, job safety analysis, bow-tie analysis and task risk assessment; assess controls for process safety, confined spaces, lifting, work at height, hot work, energy isolation, hazardous substances and emergency response; and plan inspections, incident investigations and corrective-action tracking. The course also develops practical competence in contractor HSE management, permit-to-work verification, leading and lagging indicator analysis, and audit preparation.

Delivery combines instructor-led technical sessions with field-realistic case studies, document reviews and facilitated workshops. Participants work with permits, risk registers, incident evidence, inspection findings and audit scenarios drawn from upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Each participant leaves with an Oil and Gas OHS Compliance Action Plan containing a compliance-gap register, priority control improvements, audit questions, performance measures and an implementation roadmap suitable for adaptation to their own site or asset.

The course is designed for experienced operational, maintenance, drilling, production, project and HSE personnel who must influence how work is planned, authorised, supervised and assured in oil and gas facilities.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Interpret ISO 45001, OSHA, API RP 54 and IOGP requirements against oil and gas operational activities
• Construct a legal and standards compliance register for a drilling, production, processing or pipeline site
• Apply HAZID, job safety analysis and bow-tie methods to identify major accident hazards and control barriers
• Verify permit-to-work, lockout/tagout and simultaneous-operations controls using a structured field checklist
• Evaluate contractor HSE management arrangements from prequalification through mobilisation and worksite supervision
• Investigate an oil and gas incident using evidence preservation, causal analysis and corrective-action verification
• Design leading and lagging HSE indicators for management review and regulatory assurance
• Produce an Oil and Gas OHS Compliance Action Plan with prioritised gaps, owners, dates and assurance measures

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• HSE Managers and Advisors — who must translate regulatory and industry requirements into site assurance systems
• Operations and Production Supervisors — who authorise, coordinate and monitor high-risk field activities
• Drilling and Wellsite Supervisors — who manage contractor crews, rig hazards and changing operational conditions
• Maintenance and Reliability Managers — who control isolation, lifting, confined-space and shutdown work
• Project and Construction Managers — who need defensible HSE controls during brownfield and greenfield execution
• Internal Auditors and Compliance Officers — who assess evidence of conformity across oil and gas assets

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have working experience in an oil and gas operating, maintenance, construction, drilling, production, terminal, pipeline or HSE role. They should already understand basic workplace risk assessment, incident reporting, permit-to-work terminology and the distinction between hazards and controls. Familiarity with their organisation’s HSE procedures, contractor arrangements and local regulatory framework will help participants apply the exercises directly. A laptop with spreadsheet and document-editing software is useful for workshops, but no specialist safety software, engineering degree, auditor qualification or prior ISO 45001 lead-auditor training is required.

Training methodology

The programme uses facilitated classroom or live-online instruction, followed by applied work on oil and gas operating scenarios. Participants analyse a production-facility risk profile, inspect sample permits and isolation records, map major-hazard barriers, review contractor documentation and investigate a simulated hydrocarbon-release event. Small groups compare decisions against ISO 45001, API RP 54, OSHA and IOGP requirements, then defend their recommendations in management-review discussions. The final workshop converts course findings into a practical compliance action plan for each participant’s asset, department or project.

Course outline

Day 1: Oil and gas OHS compliance foundations

• Oil and gas duty-holder responsibilities across upstream, midstream and downstream operations
• ISO 45001 occupational health and safety management system clauses
• OSHA regulatory requirements relevant to process facilities and field operations
• API RP 54 safety requirements for oil and gas well drilling and servicing operations
• IOGP Report 510 life-saving rules and operational expectations
• Legal register and obligations-register construction methods
• Compliance evidence, document control and management-review records

Workshop: Participants build a compliance register for a representative oil production site, linking each obligation to evidence, accountable roles and review frequency.

Day 2: Hazard identification and barrier control

• Major accident hazard identification for hydrocarbon and energy operations
• HAZID workshop structure and hazard prompt lists
• Job safety analysis and task risk assessment quality criteria
• Bow-tie analysis for loss-of-containment and ignition scenarios
• Critical controls, performance standards and barrier assurance
• Hierarchy of controls in drilling, production and maintenance tasks
• Simultaneous operations risk management and interface control

Workshop: Teams create a bow-tie diagram and critical-control verification plan for a hydrocarbon-release scenario during simultaneous operations.

Day 3: Control of high-risk work and occupational health

• Permit-to-work system design and permit validation checks
• Lockout/tagout and energy-isolation verification methods
• Confined-space entry classification, testing and rescue arrangements
• Hot-work control in hazardous areas and gas-testing requirements
• Lifting operations planning, lift categorisation and dropped-object prevention
• Work-at-height controls, rescue planning and scaffold inspection
• Occupational hygiene management for noise, chemicals, fatigue and heat stress

Workshop: Participants review a flawed maintenance work pack and produce a corrected permit, isolation checklist and high-risk-work control matrix.

Day 4: Assurance, contractors and incident learning

• Contractor HSE prequalification and mobilisation assurance
• Bridging documents and client-contractor responsibility matrices
• Worksite inspection techniques and evidence-based observation recording
• ISO 45001 internal audit planning and audit-trail sampling
• Leading and lagging HSE indicators for operational control
• Incident evidence preservation and causal-analysis methods
• Corrective-action management, verification and lessons-learned communication

Workshop: Groups investigate a simulated lifting incident using witness statements, inspection records and permit evidence, then issue corrective actions with verification criteria.

Day 5: Emergency readiness and compliance improvement planning

• Emergency response plans for fire, gas release, medical emergency and evacuation
• Emergency exercise design, observer checklists and post-exercise debriefs
• Management of change for equipment, process, organisation and procedure changes
• HSE compliance-gap assessment and risk-based prioritisation
• Action-plan ownership, due dates and escalation routes
• Management-review dashboards and assurance reporting
• Integrating audit findings into an annual OHS improvement programme

Workshop: Each participant completes and presents an Oil and Gas OHS Compliance Action Plan with priority gaps, control owners, measures and a 90-day implementation schedule.

Tools & standards covered

ISO 45001:2018 Occupational health and safety management systems, OSHA 29 CFR 1910 Occupational Safety and Health Standards, API Recommended Practice 54, IOGP Report 510

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions