Jan 07, 2016

Professionals in some industries face hazards to health and human safety on a daily basis. As such, strict adherence to compliance codes is absolutely necessary to ensure that best practices are always employed and that employees remain safe.

Organizations in the oil and gas industries fall under the umbrella of hazardous industries. This is because of the mechanically intensive nature of the work involved, and the volatility of the substances they extract from the earth, store in properly secured facilities, and deliver to customers. The same can be said for electrical utility companies, as power plants face many of the same fire hazards and risks for injury that oil and gas processing facilities and extraction sites do. 

Here are just a few of the ways that video surveillance solutions can create safer working environments in hazardous industries, and improve overall operational efficiency. 

Security monitoring, compliance enforcement

First and foremost, video surveillance helps ensure that human lives are well-protected during any dangerous processes that may involve working with hazardous tools, performing tasks in confined spaces, being exposed to toxic chemicals or fumes, or working in environments where fire, electricity and explosive materials pose a threat to safety. Real-time visual monitoring of these conditions can improve safety by keeping a watchful eye over activities that could have disastrous consequences should something go wrong. This security monitoring may be able to improve response times to an incident, while also providing detailed visual information for first responders, who can thereby take the appropriate safety measures while devising the best possible response strategy. 

Secondly, a huge part of successfully preventing accidents – especially at extraction points for gas and oil – is adhering to compliance codes provisioned by government organizations such as the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration. The watchful eye of video surveillance may serve as a greater impetus for organizations to keep working environments up to specifications. Likewise, workers may feel less inclined to slouch on safety measures with the knowledge that they may face repercussions if caught negating best practices on camera - for example, by entering a hard-hat area unprotected.

Remote monitoring, reduced travel

Video surveillance solutions create new opportunities for remotely monitoring infrastructure – not only as it is maintained or serviced, but also on a day-to-day basis. This is useful for several reasons. Firstly, it can help security teams reduce the risk of unauthorized entry, either by an intruder, a lost visitor or an employee with low-level clearance that wanders into a sector of a facility – such as a power plant – in which he or she is not permitted. 

Remote security monitoring of critical field technology such as oil wells and rigs and gas lines is also hugely important. Project coordinators and managers may want to regularly check on these sites without necessarily traveling halfway around the world to do so. In addition to providing a visual update, video surveillance reduces the need to travel to such a site.

According to a new report from Navigant Research, these are exactly the types of benefits that are driving significant growth in the communication services and equipment markets for oil and gas. The report noted that as the price for oil and gas drops, organizations in these industries will explore more ways in which technology such as video surveillance can improve safety and operational efficiency. In the not-too-distant future, and with the help of video surveillance solutions, remote drilling may become even more commonplace than it currently is.  

Improved resiliency and flexibility with mesh topology and wireless technology

Video surveillance is clearly beneficial to the oil, gas and electricity industries. However, there are several ways security monitoring can be further enhanced, one of which is with the incorporation of mesh network technology. The beauty of a mesh topology is that it incorporates the use of multiple nodes that can reroute network traffic should a disruption occur in one area. This can be useful at a large drilling site or in a sprawling power facility, especially in the event of an outage or an emergency. 

Wireless technology can also improve video surveillance in certain situations. Offshore oil rigs, for example, can be remotely monitored with wireless surveillance solutions. Ease of deployment and flexibility to add more IP cameras as needed yield benefits to the safety of staff, security monitoring and overall operational efficiency. 

Video surveillance is extremely valuable to organizations in the oil, gas and electrical industries as it is. As surveillance technology continues to improve, so too will its ability to serve these key industries.