Lots of companies talk about safety. But, when companies are ready to listen, they can go to an event like the National Drilling Association’s recent convention outside Baltimore, and hear from an expert like Chuck Valenta of Terracon. Valenta, with NDA President Dan Dunn of Major Drilling America, held a panel discussion there about “transformative” safety. They shared a lot of good ideas, so National Driller followed up with Valenta after the event to find out a little more. He’s a regional exploration manager with Terracon working to standardize that company’s drilling practices. Our interview here is edited for space and clarity.
A. My whole life — well, since I joined the military — was built around heavy equipment. One of the key assets to running is your operators, and you aren’t worth a damn if you can’t keep those operators safe. So I’ve made it a point to do the research and to study what the problems are, and [conduct] our own site visits, on how to change that. Through my military background, I was an instructor all the time — mentoring people on how to take care of themselves, their equipment and not get hurt doing it. And that consists of, gee, since 1977.