What to Look for in an MNS for Oil and Gas Drilling Sites
Kara Stamets, Senior Content Marketing Specialist, Alertus Technologies
The oil and gas industry plays a critical role in the global economy but can pose a hazardous environment for employees in both onshore and offshore drilling sites who handle flammable materials, high-pressure lines, heavy machinery, and encounter extreme weather conditions. When offshore rigs fail due to equipment error or human error, they are especially complicated for rescue operations to take place.
No matter the size and location of your drilling site(s), a customizable mass notification system (MNS) is key to keeping your people safe and informed.
A high-quality MNS should be able to:
Communicate with employees and visitors with clear voice messages, using Text-to-Speech Technology (TTS). Live voice announcements can be hard to hear in loud environments and during stressful situations. Therefore, TTS over high-quality speakers will provide the most explicit notifications.
Integrate with existing notification assets, such as desktop computers, IP speakers, VoIP phones, and notably fire alarm panels, due to the high risk of fire incidents on offshore oil rigs and onshore drilling sites. The oil and gas industry must follow NFPA 72 standards and guidelines to ensure the safety of their workers. Further, some emergencies may not involve all employees or areas within the drilling site. With targeted alerting, messages can be customized and distributed to different areas or groups that need them most.
Provide audible and visual alerting to overcome loud environments and reach individuals with auditory impairments. Alertus’ Alert Beacon® instantly provides strobes, text, and audio to warn employees and visitors of emergencies. The Alert Beacon can be paired with an LED Marquee to extend visual reach across your facility.
Contact everyone located outdoors on your oil drilling site. When an emergency such as an explosion occurs, High Power Speaker Arrays (HPSA) provide clear messages using TTS to alert and deliver critical information to site workers, as well as the local public if onshore, on how to respond. The radius from the explosion can be far-reaching, so HPSAs are critical in providing clear notification over large areas.
Workers on drilling sites face many safety and health hazards, so oil and gas companies must implement a comprehensive MNS to share emergency notifications quickly, avoid injuries and death, and maintain business continuity.
Contact us to find out how safety and emergency communication can be increased across onshore or offshore drilling sites.
Additional Resources
Industrial Manufacturing Mass Notification with Alertus
Alertus Technologies can provide Mass Notification Solutions for industrial and manufacturing environments that are modular and designed to scale.
Unified Mass Notification
The Alertus System’s multilayered notification approach provides organizations with intelligible voice communications, preset alerts, visible signaling, text, graphics, and more through our incomparable integration capabilities.
Wide-area Alerting
Alertus’ innovative outdoor warning solutions feature text-to-speech technology that integrates with your existing giant voice system to ensure you notify everyone of emergencies in drilling sites.