If you’ve ever set foot on an oil and gas site, you’ll know it’s not the sort of place where you want to be caught wearing the wrong shoes. Between heavy equipment, chemical spills, extreme temperatures, and surfaces that seem purpose-built to ruin your day, your feet are constantly under threat. And yet, oot injuries remain a persistent and largely preventable issue across the industry.
So what does proper foot protection actually look like in oil and gas, and what are the key safety requirements workers and employers need to get right?
Why is Feet Safety So Vulnerable on Site
It’s easy to overlook your feet when there are so many other hazards competing for attention. Hard hats, goggles, respirators — they all get their moment in the safety briefing. But consider this: oil and gas workers spend most of their shifts on their feet. They bear the brunt of everything, quite literally.
Common foot hazards on these sites include falling objects such as pipes and tools, puncture risks from nails and sharp debris, exposure to corrosive chemicals, extreme heat from welding or steam, slippery surfaces coated in oil or mud, and electrical hazards in certain operational zones. A crushed toe or a chemical burn to the foot doesn’t just hurt — it can put someone out of work for weeks or months. In an industry already dealing with skilled labour shortages, that’s a problem nobody can afford.
The Legal Framework: What Employers Must Provide
In the UK, foot protection in the workplace is governed primarily by the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (amended 2022) and the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The regulations are fairly clear: if a risk assessment identifies foot hazards that can’t be eliminated through other means, the employer must provide suitable footwear — free of charge — and ensure it’s properly maintained.
For oil and gas operations specifically, footwear typically needs to meet the EN ISO 20345 standard, which covers safety footwear with toe protection capable of withstanding impacts of at least 200 joules. But that’s really the baseline. Depending on the specific tasks and environment, additional requirements might include metatarsal guards for heavy impact zones, chemical-resistant soles and uppers, anti-static or electrically insulating properties, heat-resistant outsoles rated for continuous contact with hot surfaces, and ankle support for uneven terrain.
It’s worth noting that simply handing someone a pair of boots and ticking a box isn’t enough. The PPE regulations require employers to ensure the equipment fits properly, that workers are trained in its correct use, and that there’s a system in place for reporting defects or wear. A steel-capped boot with a cracked sole is arguably worse than no protection at all — it creates a false sense of security.
Choosing the Right Footwear
This is where things get more interesting than people give them credit for. Safety footwear isn’t just safety footwear. What a drilling crew needs is different from what a refinery technician needs, which is different again from what someone working near live electrical systems needs. The selection has to come back to the risk assessment — what are the actual, specific hazards this person will face?
Drilling operations, with all those heavy pipe sections swinging about, typically call for metatarsal protection and reinforced shanks. Chemical handling demands soles and uppers made from materials like nitrile or polyurethane that won’t break down on contact. Electrical work requires boots tested to dielectric standards.
And then there’s comfort, which some old-school types still treat as a luxury. It isn’t. Uncomfortable boots lead to all sorts of problems — people adjusting them incorrectly, cutting corners, or quietly swapping them for something that feels better but protects less. We’ve all seen it happen. The good news is that safety footwear has improved enormously.
The Role of Training
Here’s something that often gets missed: even the best protective footwear in the world is only effective if people know how to use it properly. That sounds almost absurdly simple, but the reality is more nuanced than you’d think.
Workers need to understand when specific footwear is required, how to inspect boots for damage before each shift, the limitations of their footwear (no boot makes you invincible), how to clean and store boots to maintain their protective properties, and when footwear needs replacing. A good foot protection training programme covers all of this and more. It ensures that everyone on site — from seasoned veterans to new starters — has a consistent understanding of the standards expected.
Fitting It Into the Bigger Picture
No one’s going to pretend that foot protection is the most glamorous topic in occupational safety. It doesn’t generate headlines or feature in dramatic training videos. But that’s partly why it deserves more attention — the mundane stuff is exactly what slips through the cracks.
The organisations that handle this well tend to be the ones that treat foot protection as part of a broader safety culture rather than a standalone compliance exercise. When workers see that their employer takes every risk seriously, right down to what’s on their feet, it reinforces the message that safety isn’t just for show. Broader health and safety courses for employees help build that foundation, giving people context for why all these individual requirements exist and how they connect together.
The oil and gas industry has an impressive safety record in many respects. Major incident rates have dropped over the decades, and the sector’s approach to hazard management genuinely leads the way in a lot of areas. But the unglamorous injuries, the ones involving feet and hands and backs, still account for far too many lost days. And they keep happening, not because the solutions don’t exist, but because the fundamentals get overlooked.
The Short Version
Get the risk assessment right. Choose footwear that actually matches the hazards. Make sure it fits. Train people properly. Replace it when it’s worn. None of that is complicated, but doing it consistently — every person, every shift, every site — takes genuine commitment.
Your feet carry you through every single working day. In an industry as demanding as oil and gas, looking after them isn’t optional. It’s essential.
