Evacuation management is a necessary element of safety planning for oil and gas operations. It is critical to be prepared to evacuate personnel quickly and safely in the event of an emergency, as every second counts when lives are on the line.

Evacuation drills and preparation exercises can be disruptive and time consuming. However, the overhead costs and lost productivity expended in preparation for emergency scenarios have become accepted as unavoidable costs of doing business. That’s because, until now, there hasn’t been an efficient way to manage and improve evacuation drills while still adequately preparing team members for real emergencies.

For example, traditional methods of handling evacuation management depend heavily on manual check-ins at muster points, with team leaders conducting manual headcounts. It’s an extremely time-consuming process that can be prone to error. Team leaders are still often left poorly prepared to locate and rescue workers that don’t arrive at the muster point as expected, leading to a waste of valuable time and expenses on unnecessary searches. In addition, without detailed data about the effectiveness of the drill, it is difficult for management to measure and improve on their emergency preparedness over time–beyond tracking the most basic metrics like total time to complete a drill.

This is where the digital worksite and connected safety solutions can make a world of difference, making it possible to save time during evacuation drills, measure and improve emergency preparedness, reduce unnecessary efforts and expenditures, and ensure efficient and timely emergency responses that leave no one behind in the event of an actual emergency.

What is the Digital Worksite and Connected Safety?

A digital worksite leverages data from connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices throughout the worksite to derive insights and optimize critical processes across oil and gas operations–including evacuation management. These insights make it possible to make smart decisions based on near real-time information to improve both safety and efficiency.

For evacuation management, a digital worksite solution leverages personal gas monitoring devices, like Blackline’s G7c, that refinery workers are already wearing to protect them from hazardous gases. These GPS-enabled connected safety devices, coupled with online monitoring software, make it possible to visualize everyone’s location throughout an evacuation, helping to accelerate response times and streamline the process of accounting for the wellbeing of each person.