IADC President Jason McFarland‘s latest editorial in the Sep/Oct issue of Drilling Contractor is all about safety. Jason discusses how safety remains the cornerstone of responsible energy development, and the drilling industry continues to make meaningful progress.
He paints a picture of the current safety trends utilizing data from the IADC Incident Statistics Program. The numbers for 2024 were an improvement over the year before, despite an increase in manhours. So far in 2025, however, fatalities seem to be trending upwards.
As Jason explains,
“This underscores the critical importance of our continued focus, reminding us that our work in this area is never finished.”
He goes on to discuss the importance of approaching safety in a collaborative manner across roles and companies. An excellent example of this is IADC’s Safety Alert System, where Members can submit information about incidents or near-misses, allowing others to learn from them. An exciting new project to revamp the IADC Safety Alert database has recently been completed to make this system even more effective and impactful.
Key benefits of the newly renovated Safety Alert System include, among others:
- an automated submittal and review process
- increased consistency in information submitted
- an automated safety alert distribution process
- functionality for users to search, sort and save alerts
Jason continues discussing IADC resources and projects, such as the newly released electronic IADC Drilling Rig Safety Inspection Checklist and the IADC HSE Case Guidelines for Land Drilling Units. Another new project is under way to redesign the IADC KREW (Knowledge Retention & Education for our Workforce) online learning system. This innovative hybrid learning approach is designed to improve knowledge retention and allow professionals to continuously strengthen their skills through micro-learning sessions.
In closing, Jason states,
“Together, we have the power to make our industry safer, one shared lesson and one collaborative effort at a time.”
