Number 4 - ExxonMobil in the UK

A family affair
The Talco field in East
Texas achieves a 40-year
safety record using a
simple formula: people
looking out for people.
19
Story by Bill Corporon Photography by Ed Lallo
“Some folks may think we’re
lucky,” says Greg Strickland,
field foreman at ExxonMobil’s
Talco field in East Texas, “but we
believe we make our own luck.”
Employees at the Talco field
have worked hard to make
their own luck, and it has paid
off. Talco has celebrated 40
years of operation without a
“lost time injury,” or LTI – an
injury causing an employee to
miss work.
Strickland attributes the accomplishment
to ExxonMobil’s
emphasis on safety, its training
programs and a “family atmosphere”
that has long been a
part of life at the Talco field.
“We’re a very close-knit
group,” says Patricia Carter,
senior operations technician.
“For years, employees at Talco
have socialized outside work,
and their children have gone to
school together. We all know
each other.”
Carter says that since the
early days of the Talco field,
experienced employees have
taken new workers under their
wing. “The old-timers taught the
new people how to do things
without getting hurt,” she says.
“It’s the same today.”
Greg Strickland says the safety
culture at Talco goes beyond the
effort to achieve good statistics.
“Our employees want to make
sure we all go home safe,” he
says. “Friendship and mutual
trust go a long way toward making
that happen. No one has
hard feelings if they’re corrected
for doing something the wrong
way because they know it’s for
everyone’s good.”