Predator Drilling

Often, companies will rattle off their “core values,” but not be able to relate them to their company’s strategy—but not Predator. Safety, accountability, teamwork, and performance excellence are all easily discernable in every project and business decision Predator Drilling makes.

Safety is first and foremost for the company, with Peter Entz, VP of Operations, stating that the company doesn’t have anything if its employees are not safe.

“Safety is ingrained—it is a part of our culture. We want our safety standards to be with our employees in every facet of the business. The goal is to make sure teams take what they learn home with them. It’s part of this business’s DNA.”

Entz also shared that safety is only possible through teamwork, with each employee looking after one another. The strong team mentality lends itself well to Predator’s standards of accountability, which encourage all members of the team to learn from mistakes and to grow as people and as employees.

“All three of these core values lead to performance excellence,” Entz said. “That’s where we stand apart from our competitors.”

Attacking Safety – The Predator Way

Safety is the most important core value of Predator Drilling and is the key part of the company’s success. Predator Drilling has several different safety programs to make sure that all work is done in the safest environment possible.

Predator takes pride in its dynamic Attacking Safety culture and manages the approach through experienced and committed safety leaders, a no-compromise employee recruiting and on-boarding process, extensive ongoing health and safety training and employee development, systematic and vigilant incident monitoring, and a commitment to industry HSE regulatory compliance.

One example of the company’s approach to safety is “The Passport to Attacking Safety” competency assurance program that was developed internally on input from field employees. This initiative includes a comprehensive list of requirements specific to each job role and involves an assigned employee mentor that helps ensure job competency is met and safe work practices are followed.

“From day one the program has been challenging to implement, but through adequate training and mentoring it has gotten better and better each year,” shared Entz. “Today, every employee on a job site is deemed competent. This means safer operations, better efficiency, and a lower cost structure for rig operations. An added bonus is it means we’re more competitive in the market.”

Passport to Attacking Safety isn’t Predator’s only program dedicated to safety. There is also their “Green Hard Hat Program”, which allows site managers to identify workers who are new to a site or the industry and provide the necessary resources to get that employee up to speed. Predator Drilling also utilizes the FLHA—Field Level Hazard Assessment—which tracks real-time hazards and is updated for every task in the process of completing the deliverables.

There are other HSE programs, initiatives, and techniques that Predator uses to continually build and maintain their approach to safety—it is the cornerstone of their success.

What’s Next?

Entz is very aware that the oil and gas industry is volatile, with no change on the horizon.
“I think we’re going to see the market go through its ups and downs more frequently,” he shared. “But Predator Drilling is a growth-oriented company. We’re always looking to add value to the organization and grow the business, so we’ll be able to ride through this period of volatility just fine.”