Introduction: The ongoing challenge of oil and gas safety
Oil and gas (O&G) workers’ lives and livelihoods depend on observing safety requirements at all times. Safety awareness and proactiveness are critically important in every area of the industry: upstream, midstream, and downstream. Whether it’s preventing vehicle accidents, avoiding slips and falls, or eliminating injuries caused by heavy machinery, ensuring worker safety has been a challenge for the industry since its inception in the mid nineteenth century.
Recent safety data from the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicate that although the O&G industry is seeing a long-term downward trend in fatality rates, significant risks remain in specific activities like drilling and transportation. According to the IOGP 2024 Safety Performance Indicators report (published in late 2025), the industry saw mixed performance in global operations:
- Fatal Accident Rate (FAR): The overall FAR was 0.77 fatalities per 100Mn work hours, a 6% decrease from the 2023 rate of 0.82.
- Total Fatalities: A total of 32 fatalities were reported in 2024 (up from 27 in 2023), though this occurred against a 26% increase in reported work hours.
- Contractor Risk: Contractors continue to face higher risks than direct employees, with a contractor FAR of 0.84 compared to an employee FAR of 0.57.
- Offshore vs. Onshore: Offshore operation remains more hazardous in terms of fatality rates, with an offshore FAR of 1.31 versus 0.56 for onshore.
The first step toward mitigating risks is identifying them
Of all components in the oil and gas value chain, offshore exploration and production is by far the riskiest. This is due to the combination of explosive/flammable substances, confined spaces, working at height, high-pressure environments, and other hazards. In years past, managing the safety of workers in such environments has been a largely reactive pursuit, i.e., analyzing the causes of accidents, toxic releases, etc. only after they have taken place. But with the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in recent decades, industry leaders are now employing the technology in a wide variety of ways to further enhance worker safety while maximizing productivity.
Despite the generally negative tone of industrial accident statistics, there is at least one positive aspect of these events, one that lends itself well to the use of AI in mitigating hazards. This is the fact that many hazardous conditions can be recognized visually. Add to the mix the fact that most O&G facilities—both on- and off-shore—are already well equipped with significant camera infrastructure, and you have an environment that’s ready–made to take proactive steps toward reducing or eliminating workplace accidents.
Specific hazards proactively discernible with cameras include (but are by no means limited to):
- Personal protective equipment (PPE) compliance: hard hats, safety glasses, steel-toed boots, reflective vests, gloves, safety harnesses, etc.
- Near misses—when a vehicle or piece of heavy equipment comes too close to a worker, even if only for a moment. This could be a rig pipe connector, rotary table/top drive, drill pipe elevator, or even a fork lift in a refinery.
- Use of an inappropriate tool for a specific job type
- Workers beneath suspended loads or at-height workers/tools
- Fire/smoke alerts, particularly in unattended areas (including flagging of overheating equipment using infrared cameras)
- Gaseous or fluid chemical releases/spills
- Unauthorized/unqualified workers in controlled areas (by scanning of faces or ID badges and comparing these against personnel qualification databases)
The list of such hazards is endless, ranging in severity from mere nuisances to potentially fatal outcomes. By training AI visual systems to identify these use cases, numerous mitigating actions can be taken, including:
- Sending proactive alerts to workers and/or supervisors concerning PPE compliance, entry into hazardous areas, etc.
- Turning on area danger signals (horns, klaxons, lights) alerting workers to unsafe situations/conditions
- Autonomously/remotely shutting down equipment if workers approach too closely
- Summoning emergency responders if necessary
—Amy Challen, General Manager of AI, Shell
But it’s not just about cameras
In addition to providing proactive, actionable alerts that mitigate impending safety situations, AI supports valuable periodic reporting (ranked by severity, location, recurring offenders, etc.) that helps managers track hazard trends and identify the most serious risks, enabling implementation of subsequent safety-enhancing capabilities, e.g., railings, harnesses, high-visibility paint, non-skid matting, etc. Such reporting is also an effective way to educate employees about hazards that exist in their workplaces.
In addition to using camera imagery to spot and alert on impending hazards in O&G workplaces, AI-enabled tools like digital twins can perform analyses of workplaces before employees even show up to work, identifying potential human-vehicle pinch points, trip hazards, and other risks workers should know about before starting their shifts. And by equipping workers with wearables and biometric devices, health issues like heart rate, respiration, physical positioning, etc. can identify conditions (e.g., fatigue, muscle strain, and poor attention) before such conditions can lead to incidents. These capabilities, combined with analysis of pending weather, excessive heat, and other environmental conditions, can be used in risk mapping, identifying hazards proactively, and helping minimize risks to workers.
Conclusion: The key to safe oil and gas operating performance is autonomous
Using existing camera infrastructure—whether fixed, drone-mounted, or on mobile devices—upstream, midstream, and downstream operators use Avathon Autonomy for Oil & Gas to identify potentially unsafe practices and conditions before they become accidents. The technology is uniquely equipped to tackle the challenge of ensuring safety in the workplace, not only by analyzing specific images but by contextualizing what it sees.
AI-enabled real-time video analysis is a powerful tool for ensuring safety in the O&G industry, whether off-shore, at refineries, or even at retail locations. Avathon’s Autonomy platform provides a wide range of capabilities that do not require on-staff data science expertise or resource-intensive manual analysis of video feeds. Users achieve significant safety benefits through simple, intuitively designed interfaces that allow flexible operations while ensuring continuous awareness of potentially hazardous events or conditions.
The key to ensuring workplace safety is proactive awareness of the conditions that can lead to accidents. Avathon’s Autonomy Platform enables managers to automatically monitor equipment and personnel status, assess risks, and deliver real-time notifications to team members that reduce or eliminate incidents. The platform can also autonomously shut down equipment, immediately mitigating risks without relying on employee actions.
Organizations have the flexibility to configure the Autonomy Platform to best address the industry’s specific process, environmental, and infrastructure challenges, whether at a refinery or on an oil platform. By integrating Avathon into operating processes, industrial leaders can make sure those workplace injury statistics keep trending in the right direction.
Visit our site to learn more about how Avathon Autonomy for Oil and Gas can improve your operational safety and lead to greater reliability and profitability.
