New safety orientation standard for oil and gas

As of June 1, 2014, Enform’s electronic general safety orientation (eGSO) has become the mandatory standard for general safety orientations in the upstream oil and gas industry.
The General Safety Orientation Guideline for the Oil and Gas Industry was published by Enform, the safety association for Canada's upstream oil and gas industry, on behalf of six industry associations in December 2012. This replaced the IRP 16 – Basic Safety Awareness Training. The purpose of the guideline was to outline the basic occupational health and safety information that all employers are required to provide their new, young and inexperienced workers upon hire or transfer. eGSO, a free online 20-minute video, was launched in 2013 as an easy and engaging way to provide workers with standard orientation information, said Enform.

The industry’s adoption of eGSO as the single standard for delivery of this information enables predictability of owner and prime contractor requirements, while reducing duplication of general safety orientations provided to workers.
 
What’s new:

• Starting June 1, 2014, all companies will be expected to use eGSO as part of their general safety orientation

• Workers with an eGSO Record of Completion will not be required to repeat general safety orientations

• An eGSO record of completion will be required for all workers (new and experienced)

• Construction Safety Training System (CSTS) and Pipeline Construction Safety Training (PCST) will no longer serve as equivalent to viewing the eGSO

• Enform will no longer evaluate company orientation programs for equivalency with the GSO guideline

• Enform will provide a process to deliver eGSO to groups of workers who will subsequently receive individual Records of Completion

• Workers with an existing Petroleum Industry Safety Training (PST) certificate will automatically receive an eGSO Record of Completion from Enform

•Workers completing the PST course will automatically receive an eGSO Record of Completion from Enform.