PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Tyonek platform, Peak’s Nikiski field office earn OSHA star

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has recognized ConocoPhillips’ Tyonek platform in Kenai, Alaska, and Peak Oilfield Service Co.’s Tyonek Oil Platform Operation in Nikiski, Alaska, for excellence in employee safety and health.

OSHA welcomed the facilities into its Voluntary Protection Programs at the “star,” or highest, level in a ceremony held on the Tyonek Platform in the Cook Inlet on October 17.

“The employees and managers of these companies have demonstrated that, through team-work and the commitment to safety and health excellence that the VPP ‘star’ demands, work can be done safely even in a difficult environment,” said Richard Terrill, OSHA’s regional administrator in Seattle.

ConocoPhillips’ Tyonek Platform employees perform operations and maintenance functions associated with natural gas production and processing.

Process steps include removing natural gas from subsurface reservoirs, treating the gas to remove water and particulates, and compressing and transporting the gas via pipeline to the consumer.

The platform produces approximately 80 million cubic feet of natural gas, with most of it being sent via pipeline to the company’s Kenai liquid natural gas plant. The company has four employees on site.

Peak Oilfield Services provides ConocoPhillips’ Tyonek Platform with contract labor and equipment for natural gas production. Five contract employees work on the platform performing support operations such as electrical, mechanical, housekeeping and cooking operations.

This facility joins an elite corps of nearly 1,800 worksites nationwide that have earned VPP status.

OSHA awarded the “star” designation following its onsite review of the facility’s safety and health programs, interviews with employees and a complete tour of the worksite. OSHA has approved the facility’s star status for three years under the agency’s VPP Corporate Pilot Program.