THE CRUDE TRUTH Ep. 90 Laura Vela, HSE & Business Development

Particularly focusing on the stark differences observed between regulations in the United States and those in other parts of the world. One speaker passionately defended American standards, highlighting their stringent nature and the substantial investments required to uphold them. This viewpoint underscored a prevailing sentiment of frustration over international misconceptions that often lump American practices into a broader, less stringent category.

Moreover, the discussion revealed a shared ambition to elevate global safety standards to match those set in the United States. This aspiration was seen as not only a matter of regulatory alignment but also as a pathway to enhancing operational efficiency and sustainability across international borders. The participants acknowledged the challenges posed by varying regulatory landscapes but expressed optimism that concerted efforts could lead to a more unified global approach, ultimately benefiting the entire industry.

The conversation also touched upon the broader implications of working in high-risk industries like oil and gas, noting how experience in these sectors equips professionals with invaluable skills and perspectives. Both speakers emphasized the transferability of knowledge gained in oil and gas to other fields, highlighting its role in fostering adaptability and problem-solving abilities. This reflection underscored a deep-seated belief in the industry’s transformative potential and its capacity to influence best practices beyond its immediate operational scope.

Highlights of the Podcast

05:09 – Share personal motivation for pursuing safety expertise.

07:00 – Discuss Laura’s journey and experience in safety management.

09:08 – Talks about industrial hygiene and training experiences.

11:13 – Asks Laura about seminar and training engagements.

14:24 – Explains role at Bacardi and their safety commitments.

17:16 – Safety standards in the oil and gas industry compared to global standards.

18:17 – Mentions operating at stringent levels in Europe, particularly in nuclear operations.

18:53 – Quotes Spider-Man’s “With great power comes great responsibility” about nuclear safety.

19:18 – Talks about the broad perspective gained from working in oil and gas and other industries.

22:26 – Congratulates Laura on achieving over 1 million man-hours without a recordable incident.

22:55 – Laura on her current book, sports team, favorite restaurant, music/shows, and hobbies.

24:39 – Laura for her insights and expertise on safety in the oil and gas industry.

Please reach out to Laura Vela on LinkedIn

Check out StatusJet HERE

THE CRUDE TRUTH Ep. 90 Laura Vela, HSE & Business Development

Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

Rey Treviño [00:00:00] Well, you’ve heard me say it once and you’re going to hear me say it again, and you’re going to hear me say it right now and again and again. Safety is the number one thing. Whenever you walk onto an oil and gas drilling site, production site, or heck, even at their offices. Safety is number one. And we talked to another safety expert on this episode of The Kurt Truth.

Narrator [00:00:22] In 1901, at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, the future of Texas changed dramatically as, like a fountain of fortune, thousands of barrels of oil burst from the earth towards the sky. Soon, Detroit would be cranking out Model TS by the millions, and America was on the move thanks to the black gold being produced in Texas. Now, more than a century later, the vehicles are different, but nothing else has truly changed. Sure, there may be many other alternative energy sources like wind and solar and electric. But let’s be honest. America depends on oil and entrepreneurs. And if the USA is truly going to be independent, it has to know the crude truth.

Narrator [00:01:05] This episode is brought to you by LFS chemistry. We are committed to being good stewards of the environment. We are providing the tools so you can be too. Nape Expo where deals happen. Air compressor solutions. When everything is on the line, Air Compressor Solutions is the dependable choice to keep commercial business powered up. Sandstone Group exec crew. Elevate your network. Elevate your knowledge. Texas Star Alliance, Pecos country operating. Fueling our future.

Rey Treviño [00:01:39] Well, hello again and thank you for tuning in to another episode of The Crude Truth. As my teacher said, and I’ll say it again, safety is always the number one thing in the oil and gas industry. Without it, we’ve got nothing else. And that is one of the pride and joys that we do. And heck, we pay a lot of money for experts and for consultants and for people to make sure that we make sure that every man and woman comes home every day and every night. So knock on wood and shout out to all them out there. So in that aspect today I brought on somebody that isn’t just a safety expert. Somebody that knows OSHA inside and out. Somebody that probably has had so many different color hard hats that now they’re at a level of a hard hat color that we don’t even know about. And if you know about hard hats, you know what I’m talking about. My guest today is Laura Vela from Bacardi. Laura, how are you?

Laura Vela [00:02:34] I’m blessed. Right. Thank you for having me.

Rey Treviño [00:02:36] Oh my gosh. Well, thank you so much. And, you know, you have been just really promoting the safety gain for your company and yourself and really in their winning gas industry. And when I saw that, I was like, oh my gosh, I’ve got to reach out to you and ask you to come on. As I told you in our pre-production meeting, you’re not the first person I’ve had on in safety. I’m sure you won’t be the last, but you are just as important. And that safety is the number one. And, you know, to all my listeners out there again that are not involved in the oil and gas industry. We I cannot just express enough how important safety is. So, Lord, for everybody out there that doesn’t know you. Who are you?

Laura Vela [00:03:14] Hi, everybody. My name is Laura Vela, and I’m a safety expert. I would say what is what makes somebody a subject matter expert or what makes somebody an expert. If you spent over 10,000 hours doing something in a specific subject. So how did I get here? Yeah. Excellent question. I might say when I was just a young girl, my father was involved in a serious workplace accident. He it involved an overhead crane, and he was raised by a a load that fell. It broke several bones on his back and several bones on his left foot. He has a couple of screws in, and he was in a wheelchair as a result of that accident many, many years ago. And although I was just a child, I remember thinking nobody should go to work to get hurt. I saw the the physical strain, the emotional strain and the emotional toll that it took on our family. So that’s that was the moment that determined my the journey and the path and my passions and and how I could incorporate them in helping the community. One of the many contributing factors to my father’s accident was lack of knowledge and a language barrier. And so it’s very important to me to communicate and to train and to share my knowledge, because it does nobody absolutely any good. If we’ve got all of these regulations, all of these rules, laws, and nobody knows about them. So whether they need them translated or whether they just need to have them communicated in a way that they all understand, that is one of my many objectives when it comes to the safety and the training of our folks. So I do utilize LinkedIn as one of, of one of my platforms to share my knowledge and to share my passion for safety.

Rey Treviño [00:05:09] Oh my gosh. First of all, glad to hear that your father was able to survive that. And kind of I was all excited. And then I was like, oh, dang, that’s I mean, that’s an origin story if I’ve ever heard one. And I could just see, you know, you like just kind of rising up and looking up, going like, okay, this has got to be a passion of mine because you’re absolutely right. You know, nobody deserves to go to work and any horse could, well, dangerous. You know, we got to be a safety as possible. And and more importantly, everybody deserves to come home every day because I know I don’t work to live. I’m sorry. I don’t live to work. I work to live. And I’m sure you. You do, and so does everybody else that has even the harsher jobs that are out there. And Laura, I love how you said the lack of knowledge and the language barrier. Being a Hispanic myself, that’s something that is always been a difficulty, is trying to get other Hispanics or Mexican Latino Latinas the knowledge that they need because they’ll show up totally different. And you got to sit there and kind of, you know, you got to you got to talk to them a little bit. And so the language barrier and I think that’s so cool how you’re able to assist and crossing that barrier and actually, more importantly, not crossing it. Let me rephrase it. Break that barrier because you’re the lack of knowledge is just something that is also so important. And sometimes it’s just because of the the language barrier that there’s a lack of knowledge. Is that correct?

Laura Vela [00:06:29] That is correct. That is correct.

Rey Treviño [00:06:31] Man. So, you know, tell me with what you’re doing over there. You know, here you’re you’re you’re promoting the safety, you know, what kind of certifications. And you have 10,000 hours. I mean, that’s that’s a lot of hours. I mean, the only other two people I know and maybe three, I’ll throw in my my favorite sports player too. But our Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, my favorite Tim Duncan, you know, they always preached about, you know working on it 20 minutes a day if I’m correct. And so do some other individuals. So for you to do that you know what I mean. Wow. What kind of what kind of what kind of discipline did you have to do for that?

Laura Vela [00:07:07] That’s an excellent question. And learning, the more that I know, the more I realize that I don’t know. So I, I have a bachelor’s in safety management from the University of Houston in downtown. Okay. And while I was there, I was also working in downstream oil and gas. I was working at at a chemical plant, and I had the opportunity to be an intern there. So there was several requirements I that I had to understand. I was a subcontractor at ExxonMobil, and so I had to learn my contractor rules and then Exxon’s rules, and then all of DoD and OSHA and anti and all of and choose the most stringent. Because as we all know, Exxon is a widely known brand. And so they have very, very high expectations. So from the very start I knew that I had to if I wanted to stay in the game and succeed, then I had to invest in more knowledge. Yeah, the degree helps, but it’s not everything. So then I went, I was in the crane and rigging department and I was under some crane rigging experts. They taught me a lot about critical lives and how to inspect the rigging and the annual requirements and everything like that. So that was one area of my life. From there I went on to another life and I was blessed with industrial hygiene, okay, as an additional role to have industrial hygiene. So I was responsible for safety. And now I’m a representative at Dow Chemical. Wow. So health is important. Yeah. From a safety standpoint it’s very we we’d like for it to be proactive instead of reactive. But when it comes to industrial hygiene that’s the step before safety. That’s doing it. The air monitoring and making sure that, for example, the welders are not overexposed to the fumes that they’re, well, the from the metals that they’re welding. Okay. So that was quite interesting as well. And I had to develop some additional training within, within that department because that was a niche and safety. Yeah.

Rey Treviño [00:09:08] I’d never heard of industrial hygiene right now. So I guess I’d kind of like be like, who’s in the oil and gas industry?

Laura Vela [00:09:14] Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yeah. Like the monitoring of the shoes. Yeah. So consequently. Well, after that I went on to a different role with upstream oil and gas. And this was telecommunications.

Rey Treviño [00:09:26] Yeah.

Laura Vela [00:09:27] That was so interesting. And that was a different side of oil and gas. So I was used to I was exposed to downstream oil and gas and telecommunications. We were providing radios and satellites for these oil rigs that are in remote locations like West Texas, South Texas. And we had North Dakota. Yeah. And so I was blessed with the opportunity to train my the workforce that I was with in H2 West. I become an I became an H2 trainer and a peak safety training. It’s a requirement. I’m so sorry. My memory just escaped. It’s a it’s also a training requirement for all upstream oil and gas workers. And so as I continue to grow and evolve and, and step into different roles, they’ve all required for me to grow and expand my knowledge.

Rey Treviño [00:10:19] Wow.

Laura Vela [00:10:19] In in each how would I say each transition? Yeah, it sounds great now. It sounds great, like in retrospect and when we’re talking about them. But these are all scary situations because you’re used to seeing things in a certain way, or you’re used to working or operating, focusing on certain themes, right or niche. And as you continue to grow and evolve, you start to see that. There are so many different aspects to health, safety and environmental. So that was had a lot of roles with training. Yeah, involved in them. And that’s that’s such a blessing for me because I love to talk and not just any kind of talk, but talking with purpose.

Rey Treviño [00:11:00] Well, you do that, don’t you? Do little seminars and things like that. And I want to get back to you in a minute, but let’s just go off of that right now. Right. Don’t you don’t you discuss with seminars and teams and groups about safety? Is that correct?

Laura Vela [00:11:13] Yes, yes I do.

Rey Treviño [00:11:14] And I mean, let’s let’s, you know, let’s talk about that for a minute and what you do there and what kind of groups you look for.

Laura Vela [00:11:20] Okay. I’ve been exposed to many different groups and different manners, and I am an advocate for networking because you never know who you’re going to meet and when you’ll ever see them again. So HFC works closely with workers comp, whether it’s policies and procedures, compliance or even if worst case scenario, you know, worker’s comp. But there are so many benefits and so many pluses that we don’t know that resources that are available to us. So I was selected from our worker’s comp insurance to be a representative, a HFC representative for a panel, with a panel of safety experts for oil and gas, upstream oil and gas. So that was quite interesting. We were given instructions on I don’t have any. Well, I do have to give training, the trainer training, but I’m not I’m not a public relations expert okay.

Rey Treviño [00:12:14] That’s okay. They’re my it’s.

Laura Vela [00:12:15] Quite it’s quite interesting though. Yeah. And so we were instructed on what to wear, what we shouldn’t say and, and even like the tone and the body language that was. And I’ve also had some back and forth like this with other experts and, and collaborating with them and also with team engagement. I have well, every, every project or every I always say life because it seems like it was a previous life when I was in a in a different role, I, I keep all of my connections and because they’re valuable connections that I’ve made. And so instead of reinventing the wheel when it comes to assessing an issue or a concern, I’ll collaborate with my colleagues that have expertise in that area so that we can so that we can have a more well-rounded experience.

Rey Treviño [00:13:05] Right. You know, I do want to throw you a some of a bit of a little curveball because, you know, you’re in the, you know, self health and safety and environmental agency. Have you seen in the last couple of years where, oh my God, ESG has taken over the HSC in some form or fashion? Is that something that that you would be willing to discuss for a second?

Laura Vela [00:13:25] I’m so sorry. What does ESG stand for.

Rey Treviño [00:13:29] The environmental safety and governance? I guess you all haven’t had a real big issue with that. I was just kind of curious to see if that’s kind of taken over your HSC stuff, your health and safety, because I know in some, some, some industries, the HSC, which is, you know, health, safety and environmental is getting taken over by the environmental safety and governance, which is kind of just this whole whole other flag. So why are you just saying that right there? That’s very, very comforting to hear. Also what’s very unique. And I just want to point out to everybody that’s listening and or watching this episode today, the passion that you have for health and safety, it’s just you can feel it. And you know, you now with all these different places that you’ve been, from Exxon to Dow Chemicals to to all the telecommunications, you’re now the card. And I say that right.

Laura Vela [00:14:18] You said it correctly. Thank you.

Rey Treviño [00:14:20] So so so tell me about the card and what all your role is there okay.

Laura Vela [00:14:24] Great. I’m glad that you asked though. Card is a phenomenal organization. They’ve been in operations for over 100 years. It’s a French owned company. Headquarters are in France, Paris, France. And and they’ve got five commitments. The very first one being safety first. Right. Which explains why I’m here. I’ve been here for a little over a year, and it’s a great place to be at because they commit to safety and they stand by it. And it’s so interesting to see how over 84 business units can be standardized. And although we have different cultures and languages and different compliance and law regulations, they’ve integrated the commitments to make sure that this is just standard across the globe. So that means that their top leadership is truly committed to to what they say they’re going to do. And so it’s very comforting as a professional and especially somebody who’s very passionate about safety, because unfortunately, many, many times we do see that we we say safety first, but then the reality is that production and production trumps safety, right? That’s the honest truth. In other places and other places of the world, in many, many industries, at the end of the day, this is a business. All of the businesses are business. So. It’s important to understand that that’s the very first advice that I would give to anybody, any HSC professional that just starting out. It is important to be very, very passionate and and to know where you stand for the people, for the community and for the workforce, but to understand that this is a business. Yeah. And so that’s that’s quite interesting. Here at Bacardi we’re based in Houston, Texas. We met for the majority of 40 years a manufactured pipe. And a lot of our clients are oil and gas. But here within the last two years we’ve also started manufacturing skids and modules. So we’re going more into the power industry. We we have unfortunately, I can’t say right at this time who we’re in business with and who our clients are because we have an NDA. But it is so exciting that we’re expanding. Our reach is no longer just in oil and gas. The power industry is also booming, you know. And the very neat thing that I can say, the most important thing when it comes to skills and modules for us here, yes, it’s a lucrative business. It’s great. Yeah. But we get to assemble everything here in a safe and controlled environment instead of having stacked work or scaffolding and a lot of elevated work. Most of the work that we conduct here in the shop is assembled here in a controlled manner, and then it’s just shipped so that it’s just basically delivered ready to go at the end users. Okay. So we’re minimizing the risk for the end users.

Rey Treviño [00:17:16] Yeah. Very cool. Well that’s awesome. And you know, I love how you’re trying to do certain things on a safety on a global scale. And the only reason why is we get a lot of somehow we get lumped in in America as being unsafe like the rest of the world, when that’s just not the truth. The truth is, the standards in America outweigh everybody else’s, from Kuwait to Saudi Arabia to Venezuela to Russia. It’s like, you know, a lot of the costs that we have on drilling new wells is due to safety. And so it’s like, you know, so I’m very glad to hear that maybe we can actually get the rest of the world there. I say the catch up to us as far as maybe some part of the oil and gas industry goes, because, you know, I get that grief all the time of why are we not, you know, getting cheap, cheaper, or why are we not doing it like here? And it’s like, guys, you know, our regulations are more stringent, our safety is more stringent. It’s like, you know, here in America. So I’m glad to hear that you guys are fighting to get a global standard that hopefully reaches up to where American standards are. For one. That’s real nice to hear.

Laura Vela [00:18:17] That’s true. That’s true. And the majority of the business that Bill does on the other side of the world on the European side is nuclear. So that’s also we’re we’re operating at very stringent levels, so that anything below that is is a piece of cake for us. So you’re correct.

Rey Treviño [00:18:34] Yeah. And I mean, I don’t even want to touch, you know, touch the nuclear I’ve had on some great guests that are in the nuclear industry. And, you know, for as safe as it is, I mean, I can only imagine the safety regulations that have to go in place for it to be as safe as it is.

Laura Vela [00:18:50] Right? You know, it’s spider man says.

Rey Treviño [00:18:53] Was five minutes.

Laura Vela [00:18:54] With great power comes great responsibility to share.

Rey Treviño [00:18:58] Yeah. That’s right. Yeah. You’re absolutely right. I’m going to have to share that next time with another one of the oil and gas of the nuclear people. I have to say that with great power comes great responsibility.

Laura Vela [00:19:09] Spider-Man says that.

Rey Treviño [00:19:10] Spider-Man. Well, you know, I want to kind of go back to, you know, how the oil and gas in your background and how how they correlating, how they how they intersected.

Laura Vela [00:19:18] Okay, I may be biased here. Okay. But coming from a background in oil and gas, it just gives you such a more a broader perspective. And you see so many deficiencies and so many gaps in the place that aren’t as strict.

Rey Treviño [00:19:36] Okay.

Laura Vela [00:19:36] So it’s a if you can do oil and gas, you can pretty much do anything else. And I may be biased there, but I’ve had the pleasure of working in telecommunications, marine and railroad construction training and now manufacturing. So I can honestly say that if we were to compare and we should never compare in anything, whether it’s life or anything, but if we were to compare, I would. My favorite is oil and gas because it just it operates at a different level and it gives you knowledge is power. Knowledge is power.

Rey Treviño [00:20:11] You know I cannot disagree with you on. It’s so many a couple of similarities. And for you to say that if you can do oil and gas, you can do anything. That’s actually where we got the name for our our company, Pecos Country Operating. My dad was like, we did something that was very hard. We went and hiked as a me and my two younger brothers and him when did some backpacking years ago. And we hiked up like these 15,000 foot peaks. And it was so strenuous and hard and it was called the Pecos Wilderness out in New Mexico. And so when he started picking. This country energy one of our ENP companies. He goes, if we can do oil and gas, we can do anything else. He goes, we did that peak, which was so hard, so definitely cannot disagree. I totally agree with you that yes, if anybody can do oil and gas, you can do anything else in the world. And that’s why they always say if oil and gas was easy, everybody would be doing it right.

Laura Vela [00:21:03] That’s right.

Rey Treviño [00:21:03] And and the other one was I love how you’ve been in marine and railroad construction. My youngest brother actually got his undergrad at U of H in chemical engineering. So, you know, he’s a cougar. I don’t know if downtown’s a cougar or not, but but he’s a cougar. And then he actually then went off to A&M and got a marine engineering degree. So he’s very broad and he’s he’s very traveled and diverse himself. But but he works with us and out here the gas industry. But no. So I cannot disagree that, hey, you know, if you can do oil and gas you can do anything else. You know, Laura, for individuals out there that are looking to consult with you guys, you know, again, you know, how can they reach out and how can they connect with you guys?

Laura Vela [00:21:43] That’s a great question. I would highly recommend that you go through the business development team. We have a great leader. His name is Darren. I can I can give you guys the information for either deer. We have a very diverse team here. So I’m afraid that if I start naming last names now, it’ll be completely lost so I can share the information. Okay. Yeah. Of course. We appreciate your business and even the thought of it. Ooh, while we’re at it. Yeah, I, if I may toot my own horn here. We just celebrated and. Well, September is almost around the corner now. In September, we celebrated over 1 million man hours without a recordable incident.

Rey Treviño [00:22:23] Whoa!

Laura Vela [00:22:24] That’s huge. That is huge.

Rey Treviño [00:22:26] Wow. Congratulations. And you can definitely tell that you’re the health and safety expert. I love that you got the Tylenol and the first aid kit right there behind you, I love it.

Laura Vela [00:22:37] Oh, absolutely. You’ve got a headache here you go safely go back to work.

Rey Treviño [00:22:41] We are right.

Laura Vela [00:22:42] But it shows that we are. We’re truly committed to their health and their well-being.

Rey Treviño [00:22:46] You know, I’ve been doing something fun and new on the side. And I just wanted to ask you five rapid fire questions here as we wrap up. Okay. Are you ready?

Laura Vela [00:22:54] I’m ready.

Rey Treviño [00:22:55] All right. What book are you reading right now?

Laura Vela [00:22:57] Dare to lead. It’s right here.

Rey Treviño [00:22:59] Dare to lead. Okay. Do you have a favorite sports team, the Texans? Okay.

Laura Vela [00:23:04] I have to have something. You know, I have them all to my favor here this year, though.

Rey Treviño [00:23:09] Yeah, well they did. They went to the playoffs with Stroud if I’m correct. Right. And. Okay. Do you have a favorite restaurant I.

Laura Vela [00:23:14] Love all foods.

Rey Treviño [00:23:15] Okay. All right. Are you streaming any good music? Good shows right now.

Laura Vela [00:23:19] Bridgerton.

Rey Treviño [00:23:20] Bridgerton. Okay. Yeah. And you know, for for when you’re not doing health and safety. Do you have any hobbies that you like to do?

Laura Vela [00:23:27] Yes. I love to be outdoors with my kids. Anything green? Green is my favorite color. So trees, botanical gardens, museums. Now that the summer’s just around the corner, natural springs, all that kind of stuff. That’s my cup of tea.

Rey Treviño [00:23:42] Okay. Are there natural springs in the Houston area?

Laura Vela [00:23:44] No. They’re right. Yeah, San Marcos Austin.

Rey Treviño [00:23:47] All right. Okay. I was like, I don’t know about any in Houston. And then y’all had a bunch of bad weather too, so I guess everything’s good over there, right?

Laura Vela [00:23:54] Yes. Luckily the storms have been pretty extreme lately. And I did know that. I know that it went through Dallas as well. I hope all as well.

Rey Treviño [00:24:03] Yes. Yeah. Dallas and Fort Worth, we got it. We got a been a long time since the whole area got a good kick in the way it did the other day, but knock on wood, you know, we saw as a time of record this episode got a lot of people still without power. And but hopefully we’ll get all that turned around soon.

Laura Vela [00:24:17] Hopefully soon.

Rey Treviño [00:24:18] Well, Laura, you know, again, I cannot thank you enough for for coming on for talking about book card and really just sharing with us your knowledge as a as a safety expert. And yes, you are definitely a safety expert. And I may have, you know, so I just cannot thank you enough for that. And I look forward to having you on again. And we’ll have to talk more health and safety in the future.

Laura Vela [00:24:39] Absolutely. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you and to be here on your show and to talk to you. Thank you so much.

Rey Treviño [00:24:45] Awesome. And to all the listeners out there again. And the oil and gas industry safety is number one. We’ll see you again on another episode of The Crude Truth.

Narrator [00:24:54] Again, the Crude Truth would like to thank today’s sponsors LFS chemistry, Nap Expo, Air Compressor Solutions, sandstone Group, Exec Crew, Texas Star Alliance, Pecos Country Operating, and Real News Communication Network.

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