Health, safety and wellbeing

Protecting the health and safety of our people, our contractors and our host communities is a top priority at Woodside.

MATERIAL TOPIC

Protecting the health and safety of our people, our contractors and our host communities is a top priority at Woodside

We focus on health and safety because we believe that everyone should be able to go home in the same condition as they started the day.

The fatality of our colleague, a contractor employee, on the North Rankin Complex (NRC) continues to affect many of us. Our response prioritised the immediate safety and wellbeing of the workforce on the NRC. The Woodside Board convened and members of our Board and Executive Leadership Team visited our operational sites to meet with our workers (including employees and contractors) and offer their support. We completed a significant internal investigation into the incident and presented the findings and agreed actions to the Board and the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA). In the fourth quarter of 2023, we facilitated an external review of our integrated safety and operational systems and plan to incorporate recommendations of this review into actions as part of a continuous improvement to our safety performance.

We aim to be an industry leader in health and safety outcomes to protect people, communities and environments. We expect all our workers (including employees and contractors) to prioritise their own health and safety and that of others to keep each other safe. We strongly believe in embedding a safety culture where our people are empowered to take action to prevent injuries and maintain a safe working environment.

Highlights¹

Employee survey results showed us that our people feel empowered to speak up and act on health and safety issues.
The framework for our new Woodside Field Leadership Program was developed and we commenced testing the approach with our Australian based workforce.
Integration of our global approach to wellbeing, event reporting and investigations, health, safety and environment (HSE) in contracting and performance monitoring was progressed.

This section refers to highlights within a specific time period. Please note that the relevant year, where the activity applies, is stated where appropriate. Where we refer to our activities without reference to a previous calendar year or using present tense, the relevant content may be updated from time to time at our discretion but no reliance should be placed by the reader on this page being up-to-date. We also recommend checking our Announcements page regarding our most recent business activities.

Potential opportunities

Continue to learn from the incident on the NRC that led to the fatality of our colleague employed by a contractor company and other significant events.
Embed our Field Leadership Program to strengthen understanding of our work practices and make improvements to HSE risk controls.
Improve tracking and visibility of leading indicators of HSE performance.

Potential risks

Significant loss of primary containment process safety events.
Failure to effectively plan and execute high-risk work activities.
Failure to apply lessons from investigations and Field Leadership Program engagements leading to repeated events.

Safety

Our approach¹

At Woodside, everything we do is guided by Our Values. Everyone has the right to come to work and feel safe. Woodside continues its longstanding commitment to building and maintaining a work environment that is free from all forms of discrimination and inappropriate behaviour including sexual harassment. Our Code of Conduct defines the expected behaviours of everyone working at Woodside. Implementation of our Working Respectfully Policy supports the psychological safety of our workforce.

View our Health and Safety Policy

Our We Care value guides us to keep each other safe and care for communities. We prioritise safety and promote a positive safety culture by encouraging everyone to speak up and intervene on safety issues. We acknowledge providing energy to the world in the form of oil, gas and new energy potentially presents safety risks. We aim to control or mitigate the potential impacts of these risks on people, the economy and the environment.

Our Health and Safety Policy outlines the objectives and principles that shape our approach. This approach is consistent across all our business operations. When assessing safety risks, we consider the potential negative impacts of our business activities to communities and our workforce, including impacts on human rights. We implement systems and processes to identify, assess and control safety risks by applying the hierarchy of controls. Our expectations and procedures set mandatory requirements for managing high-risk work, including obligations to stop unsafe work to prevent potential fatalities and high-consequence injuries.

View our Code of Conduct

We report and investigate health and safety events to understand risks, causes, and implement corrective actions to mitigate impacts and to ensure that our controls are effective. This supports continuous improvement of our systems to help prevent recurrence. All employees, contractors and joint venturers engaged in activities under Woodside operational control are responsible for application of this approach. venturers engaged in activities under Woodside operational control are responsible for application of this approach.

We engage with our workforce regularly to communicate safety information and to understand current and emerging safety issues. Regular communication channels include site-based pre-start meetings, safety event bulletins, safety learning meetings, performance updates and reports. Our formal site based HSE representatives meet at operated sites each month to discuss workplace HSE risks and raise priority issues with site management².

View our Working Respectfully Policy

To familiarise workers with HSE hazards and procedures, location specific inductions are conducted. Our competency frameworks outline competency requirements and training in areas such as risk management, process safety, emergency response preparedness, human factors, and management of occupational health, including support for mental health and wellbeing. To strengthen the consistency of our approach across our business operations, our global health and safety expectations have been developed. Further management system documentation updates planned through 2024, in preparation for our harmonised management system.

This section refers to current intentions, plans or stated targets (where applicable). It also outlines information regarding our Management System and relevant processes and procedures. Where we refer to our activities without reference to a previous calendar year or using present tense, the relevant content may be updated from time to time at our discretion but no reliance should be placed by the reader on this page being up-to-date. We also recommend checking our Announcements page regarding our most recent business activities.
Approach may vary for sites where Woodside has subcontracted operations

Our performance¹

A fatality of our colleague on the NRC occurred in June 2023. Three additional high-consequence injuries were also recorded for 2023. Two musculoskeletal injuries that required surgery with extended recovery beyond six months and partial amputation of a thumb following a crush injury. Following insights from event investigations, we are focusing on field leadership and engagement, risk assessments and equipment management processes.

In 2023, Woodside experienced two Tier 1 and one Tier 2 loss of primary containment (LOPC) process safety events (PSE). All events were investigated, and actions were put in place to address the root causes, including preventative actions across our facilities. We are also embedding lessons learned relating to equipment selection and maintenance.

The workforce exposure hours in 2023 (total hours 20,914,483) increased by 25%, when compared to 2022 (total hours 16,699,730). Increase in exposure hours in 2023 was due to increasing project activity and merger integration.

Our total recordable injury rate (TRIR) of 1.86 increased with 39 recordable injuries in 2023, compared to 30 in 2022. The main injury types were lacerations, wounds and soft tissue injuries.

Total Recordable injuries (TRI) and total recordable injury rate (TRIR)²

This section refers to our performance within a specific time period. Please note that the relevant year, where the activity applies, is stated where appropriate. Where we refer to our activities without reference to a previous calendar year or using present tense, the relevant content may be updated from time to time at our discretion but no reliance should be placed by the reader on this page being up-to-date. We also recommend checking our Announcements page regarding our most recent business activities.
Data included here includes information relevant to the former Woodside Petroleum Ltd as well as the Woodside Energy Group Ltd for the period 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022 and includes data relevant to the assets acquired through the merger with BHP’s petroleum business from 1 June 2022 to 31 December 2022.

Health and safety data

For more information refer to the health and safety-related data table.

Related information

Click on each of the following topics to view more about it.

Health and wellbeing

Our approach¹

We take action to protect the health of our workforce and facilitate earliest recovery from work-related injury or illness. We aim to eliminate or mitigate workplace health hazards at the design stage of projects or control them as far as reasonably practicable based on the level of assessed risk. If hazards remain and there is a risk of exposure, we strive to ensure that worker exposure does not exceed legal limits through implementation of the hierarchy of controls method.

We perform health surveillance in accordance with applicable law to detect the early signs of occupational illness so intervention, and if necessary, rehabilitation, can be initiated. Potentially harmful workplace health hazards include uncontrolled exposure to noise, hazardous substances (e.g. benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX), and mercury), naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), infectious disease (e.g. COVID-19), hazardous manual tasks and psychological hazards.

This section refers to current intentions, plans or stated targets (where applicable). It also outlines information regarding our Management System and relevant processes and procedures. Where we refer to our activities without reference to a previous calendar year or using present tense, the relevant content may be updated from time to time at our discretion but no reliance should be placed by the reader on this page being up-to-date. We also recommend checking our Announcements page regarding our most recent business activities.

Our performance¹

Our total recordable occupational illness frequency (TROIF) increased to 1.15 per million hours worked from 0.72 in 2022. The 24 recordable occupational illnesses comprised 12 noise induced hearing loss, five psychological illnesses, four musculoskeletal conditions and three skin reactions.

This section refers to our performance within a specific time period. Please note that the relevant year, where the activity applies, is stated where appropriate. Where we refer to our activities without reference to a previous calendar year or using present tense, the relevant content may be updated from time to time at our discretion but no reliance should be placed by the reader on this page being up-to-date. We also recommend checking our Announcements page regarding our most recent business activities.