Data from the Trinidad and Tobago Occupational Safety and Health Authority shows a downward trend in reported accidents from the fiscal year 2018/19 to the present across all economic activities. Over the last six periods, the number of reported accidents fell from 1,981 to 1,350, representing an approximately 32% reduction. Reports of critical accidents also fell from 79 to 51 over the same period. While the full fiscal year for 2024–2025 is not yet complete, data from October 2024 to June 2025 shows that OSHA recorded 1,005 accidents of which 48 were critical accidents, continuing this downward trend.
The activity with the most reported incidents was human health, followed by wholesale and retail trade, and manufacturing. It should be noted that there is no category specific to oil and gas operations. Incidents in this sector may be recorded based on the activity of the service being provided. For instance, an activity in the downstream may be recorded under manufacturing, whereas an injury that occurs during the construction of a plant or drilling pad may be recorded as a construction-related accident or based on the specific service/activity being performed.
While the data shows that the reporting of incidents is falling overtime, does this mean that fewer workplace accidents are occurring in the country? It's difficult to say with certainty.
In the energy sector, companies take safety seriously; there are entire departments and even dedicated companies focused on reducing the risk of accidents across the industry. The oil and gas sector is one of the most heavily regulated for safety in the world, and accidents are reviewed critically. As a result, there is a high level of reporting from this industry. For other industries where regulations are not as stringent, it may be difficult to get an accurate measure of the number of incidents, as many incidents may go unreported, especially in sectors like agriculture where operations involve many individuals rather than larger, established companies with HSE management systems. (Agriculture recorded the lowest number of reported incidents).
Within the energy industry, the Safe To Work (STOW) programme was established to ensure that companies maintain a safety management system. This helps contractors meet the requirements of multiple operators with one standardized HSE (Health, Safety, and Environment) management system. Without this programme, each contractor would have to satisfy the requirements of several different operators before being considered for work.
Any accident that happens has to be critically studied to understand why it occurred and how it can be prevented, what systems can be improved or how can staff be trained better to avoid harm to persons.
Within the Safe To Work (STOW) Programme, under Element 9 (Accident Reporting & Investigation), contractors need to have a procedure for accident reporting and investigation. They also need to conduct investigations where there were any accidents.
Several HSE professionals from the energy industry have weighed in to shed some light on this scenario, and the consensus is that reporting is key to avoiding accidents in the future. At the Energy Chamber’s Process Safety Forum, "Lessons Learned" was a key theme that emerged. Learning from the mistakes of the past is critical, both at a national level and at an industry level. Additionally, sharing lessons learned from these incidents is more important than ever. This level of collaboration is needed not only within the industry but also to prevent accidents across the country as a whole.
While the number of reports is declining, this is a positive sign, however this does not mean that there should be complacency. Any incident on a site is too many, and we should all work collaboratively to envision a world with no workplace accidents.