The Utah Petroleum Association is proud to announce our inaugural Safety and Environmental Awards, with winners to be revealed at the 2022 Annual Meeting. We know there is so much good work going on, quietly, under the radar that does not seek recognition but rather happens because it’s the right thing to do. We’re pleased to showcase three awards and the nominees in each category.

Here is a brief description of the nominees in each of the three categories:

Safety Action Award

This is awarded to a person, project, or team that has impacted the likelihood or potential of preventing an accident or incident, or an action that results in improved safety results or processes and was reviewed by a panel of five judges made up of upstream and downstream HSE professionals. Here are the nominees:

• Berry Petroleum’s Utah Operations Team for their work on the revised Winter Tire Program. In early 2020, Berry’s Chief Operations Officer challenged Berry’s Health and Safety Team to reduce Berry’s overall rate of motor vehicle accidents. Thanks to a thorough review of the team’s vehicle-related incident data, in late 2020, all field vehicles were fitted with studded snow tires from October to April, which resulted in a 75% reduction in Vehicle Incident Rates over 11 months with an additional benefit of $36,000 in cost savings.
  
  
• Chevron’s IsoAlky project, which is the product of more than 20 years of research. Chevron chose its Salt Lake Refinery to test the concept with a 10 barrel-per-day pilot plant commissioned in 2009. The scaled facility is the largest capital project the refinery has ever undertaken. This SLC homegrown innovation has allowed the Chevron Salt Lake Refinery to take hydrofluoric acid out of plant operations and to prove this first-of-its-kind technology to the refining industry globally.
  
  
• Finley and Uinta Wax for their donation to the Uintah Fire District. The Avalon Fire Department has needed a pumper truck capable of dispensing foam and delivering large volumes of water to respond to fires within their response area. Additionally, they donated 10, 4-gas monitors to the Roosevelt, Avalon, and Vernal fire departments. These 4-gas monitors will provide significant protection to the firefighters from Low Explosive Limit (LEL) gases, H2S gas, carbon dioxide, and low oxygen environments. Additionally, six defibrillation units (AED) were donated to Neola Elementary, Centennial Elementary, Kings Peak Elementary, Thompson House of Hope, and the Roosevelt Baptist Church.

The Step Change in Safety Award

This award is given to a company that has demonstrated a culture change or programmatic shift resulting in significant process changes or organizational culture changes, with a focus on innovation or broader step changes, and was reviewed by a panel of four judges comprised of upstream and downstream HSE professionals. Here are the nominees:

• Brinderson for their implementation of safety initiatives designed to encourage safe behavior from all team members, and a cultural shift to personal responsibility, and accountability. As a result of actions like site-specific health and safety assessment plans, job hazard analysis, and other actions, Brinderson demonstrated their “zero incidents are possible” mantra, with their last recordable injury occurring on July 23rd, 2020.
  
  
• InServ, for their deployment of a slate of safety programs including Vivid, a computer-based training that breaks down over 1,000 different training courses, and Patriot Cards, a behavior-based audit program for both self-audits or an audit of a co-worker. InServ has surpassed four million man-hours recordable free.
  
  
• MMR Constructors launched a new safety program titled “Behavioral Based Safety,” in which all crafts are incentivized to observe their environment and co-workers in the field and to address any unsafe conditions. The program has increased safety participation from an average of three unsafe scenarios being recognized per month to an average of 18 per month and helped achieve over 150,000 labor hours with zero recordable incidents in Utah.
  
  
• Pro Industrial, for the development of their Tagin Tech system and the SATELLITE and EVAC technology, which use cloud base systems in the event of an evacuation to provide first responders real-time info for rescue decision-making. Tagin Tech has significantly reduced the time and error in human-generated muster reports.
  
  
• Sulzer introduced a number of programs with the goal of reducing their Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) to a low 1.0 through formalized pinpointed training; High Hazard Analysis reviewed quarterly, a divisional wide safety stand-down led by Upper management and ESH, and introduction of their virtual safety walk.
  
  
• Superheat created the SWAT program with a goal for employees to be safety forward. Employees fill out SWAT cards each month with observations, corrective actions, and follow-ups. The HSE team selects eight to discuss at monthly meetings with incentives for winning SWAT cards. The program has led to insights on real-time safety trends across the company’s multiple locations.

The Environmental Leadership Award

This award is given to a person, project team, or company that demonstrates the application of an innovative technology or process that results in positive, measurable environmental impacts that goes above and beyond the regulatory requirements, and was reviewed by a panel of five judges.

• Caerus Oil & Gas earned two nominations. One went to Ron Allred for piloting two projects aimed at reducing methane and VOC emissions. The other went to Jerry Dismukes for his leadership in sharing best practices and progressing emission controls and leak detection that go above and beyond requirements. Ron, Jerry, and their colleagues have piloted two projects aimed at lowering methane & VOC emissions. The first is using air skids on production locations to replace gas pneumatics associated with traditional separators. The second is solar power pumps that can replace chemical and heat trace pumps traditionally run off gas actuation.
  
  
• Chevron, Rachel Agnew, and her team were nominated for their air action telework program. The Chevron SLC refinery has rolled out a program that not only allows but encourages employees to work remotely on red air days — this cuts vehicle trips and makes measurable emission reduction contributions.
  
  
• Gigi Camerena from Silver Eagle was nominated for her outstanding leadership in developing and promoting many broad safety and environmental initiatives, sharing best practices, as well as being a critical driver of their environmental and safety culture.
  
  
• XCL Resources was nominated for their produced water recycling facility capable of handling approximately one million barrels. This will reduce environmental hazards by transporting water via pipeline, reducing local roadway impacts, removing 100k+ heavy truck trips per year, and reducing the amount of freshwater used per year by approximately eight million barrels.

Congratulations and a sincere note of gratitude to all of our nominees for their commitment to safety and environmental leadership. The winners will be announced at our Annual Meeting March 24 & 25.