DRUG TESTS CLEAN UP OILPATCH

The almost mythic picture of the hard-living, hard-drinking life of the oil
rig worker is sliding into history.

Now, a worker suspected of imbibing on the job or taking illicit drugs
faces a urinating session with a test tube, the product of which will be
subjected to high-tech analysis.

Work camps, these days, are dry.

And drug tests are state-of-the-art.

It's a far cry from the central role alcohol played in the industry just 14
years ago, says Toni Gannon, vice-president of the Small Explorers and
Producers Association of Canada in Calgary.

`I can honestly say I've seen quite the improvement,' she says.

`I know when I first got into the patch, there was a lot of drugs and
alcohol. The guys, especially the rig hands and your seismic crews,
basically spent their paycheques in the bar.'

Her job was selling pipe.

`Even 14 years ago,' Gannon recalls,' I remember being out in the field,
delivering cases of whiskey to the engineers and the rig hands. That's
basically how you got your work, by buying it with alcohol.

Most companies now have policies prohibiting the use, on the job, of
antihistamines, some pain-killers, alcohol and illegal drugs.

Dwayne Peters, senior vice-president of operations for Precision Drilling
in Calgary, says drug and alcohol tests have led to a `major improvement in
the industry over the last four or five years.

`There's been a dramatic change,' he says. `It's improved the productivity
in the oil industry.

`In the last three or four years, when you go for lunch and stuff, it's
very seldom you see anybody who has a drink now. And that used to be sort
of a common practice five, six, seven years ago.'

Most of the oil companies developed policies in the mid-'90's to battle
drug and alcohol use on the job.

The Canadian Association of Oil Well Drilling Contractors produced a policy
guideline for contractors in 1993 at the request of the industry. The
companies used it to help develop their own programs.

Don Herring, association managing director, says he's not aware of alcohol
and drug use as a 8Cserious problem.' The banned substances have not been
found at fault in oil-field accidents.

`I'm aware that there are stories out there of drugs and alcohol,' he
acknowledges, `Probably more drugs than anything (are) getting into some of
the worksites.'

The association represents about 40 drilling contractors running about
1,400 rigs and about 70 well-servicing contractors.

Peters says his company randomly tested its own employees for drugs or
alcohol about a year ago and found about 8.5 per cent of its workers tested
positive.

`That's actually a pretty good number,' he allows. `Everybody was figuring,
when we got into this policy, the number we were going to see was 25 per
cent.'

Precision has about 4,000 employees and 214 drilling rigs.

Its program - the employee assistance plan - boasts a success rate of about
98 per cent in returning employees to work, again, after they run afoul of
the rules.

At the industry-funded training school in Nisku, south of Edmonton, a
zero-tolerance policy is in place for students caught using drugs or
alcohol, says Doug Gibson, a training co-ordinator.

The Petroleum Industry Training Service Centre offers courses for people
who want a job but know nothing about the industry, and other courses for
more senior oil workers.

A student who comes to the entry-level class impaired or suspected of being
so is sent home, Gibson says.

`We tell them that all the contractors are doing these drug screenings.
It's an unfortunate thing it's still there,' he says.

But `it's not nearly as bad a problem as it was 20 years ago, when I first
started.'

The programs, such as Precision's focus on the worksites.

A minor accident or incident at a rig will call for urine testing.

`That's where we go out and test every employee on location for any type of
abuse of drugs or alcohol,' Peters says. `We actually have a company that
goes right out to the rigs and takes a test of everybody on location.'

The samples are taken to a lab and the results returned to the company.
Under Precision's terms of employment, a new employee is fired if a test
comes back positive within the first three months.

A worker on the job for longer than that is suspended without pay. If the
employee is a valued one, they enter the employee assistance program.

`It might mean you get a letter that goes on file, stating that this
incident has popped up and you will be automatically random tested again
over the next two years.' he says. `That's the only time a random kicks in.'

If the random test is positive, the worker is fired.

The policy also offers counselling for employees with more serious
problems. It can be recommended the worker will need to be off the job for
awhile. Peters gives the policy an enthusiastic thumbs up.

`Out of one to 10, I would say eight,' he says.'that's pretty high. It's
done a lot for the company.

Checked-by: derek rea