The offshore oil and gas industry will today be given a stark warning that its safety performance is not good enough.
A report is expected to reveal that engineering and maintenance is not being given enough attention and not only is there a wide variation between companies but also within companies.
After a three-year investigation of nearly 100 installations the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will tell operators that while significant improvements have been made "more must be done".
The direct "must do better" message to the industry will be made at the launch of the KP3 report - a major investigation carried out by the HSE's Aberdeen-based Offshore Division into the safety and integrity of offshore installations and the equipment on them.

Rick Cohagan, Managing Director of Chevron Upstream Europe, has been appointed new co-chair of Step Change in Safety . He will work with the Step Change leadership team and co-chair Doug Halkett on improving the oil and gas industrys safety record, with the aim of making the UK the safest place to work in the world-wide oil and gas industry.

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E. Shaibani () - Offshore Unit Safety SPV Newbie | 2007-11-26 07:02:11 [color=blue][b]Thank you for giving us the chance to join this conversation. I would like to highlight about the problem which we are facing in the offshore oil and gas idustry in the developing countries, first, this industry doesn't have an international organisation which has a mandatory regulations or conventions to govern the safety and environmental aspects on all offshore instalations, there are only some assosiations and regulatory bodies which are working for certain regions or countries. Each offshore field has its specific environment and nature of operation and there should be interchange of information, specially accident or incident recods ,also we have to have an intenational minimum standards for all offshore installtions. on the opposit side we can find the shipping industry which is governed by the IMO organisation , always improves and develops the shipping industry from the Maritime accidents, for example , Titanic disaster led to SOLAS convention , Torrey canyon Accident led to Marpol Convention , sinking or Free herald enterprise led to ISM convention. while we can find Piper Alpha disaster led to Lord Cullen recommendation which implemented SAFETY CASE on the installations working in the UK water only.[/b][/color] Reply | Quote 1   0

Jonno (92) Senior board member | 2007-11-27 04:08:45 I am very interested in your comments - the article noted above is obviously dealing specifically with the UK and as you point out, the rigs which fall under UK jurisdiction are legally bound by the UK laws. I would have thought that similarly, rigs in say other European territories and or USA waters would have adequate standards and be governed by the laws of the respective countries. I am guessing that your practical experience is not on rigs in these areas ? Your point is well taken - but what is the answer ?. Are the rigs of concern operated by major oil companies ? or others ?. Unfortunately there are always going to be unscrupulous operators willing to exploit - I have not worked on oil rigs but have worked in petrochemical in both project and maintainance capacities so am well aware of the need to maintain tight procedures and high standards. Particularly when lives are at stake - mine included. I wish that I could be of more help, but the type of Governing Body you are proposing needs to be formulated at a very high level. If anyone else out there has other views or comment or knows how to create a groundswell of interest at an international level - please get involved Reply | Quote 0   0

bill (73) Senior board member | 2007-11-27 20:03:14 Always a tough call - wether oil rigs, underground mines, construction sites or factories, the standards applied are relative to the jurisdiction they fall under. Without stating the obvious, one of the major reasons that "cheap labour" countries are "cheap" is that they don't have safety and maintenance standards and are able to cut corners and get away with dangerous and poor practises. They regard Cheap Labour as a disposable commodity. Without getting on the political; bandwagon, the reason that the West (in general)has higher standards is that we (my father, grandfather and great grandfather fought long hard bitter fights to get it and yes, the unions played an extremly important part in that struggle) Management did not suddenly wake up one morning and say injuring and killing workers is bad for business so we are going to make the safety of our workers our number 1 priority. Sorry, I'm getting off the point - If the rigs in question are owned by big oil (and we all know who these are) or are operating in waters owned by countries with Responsible governance, then there is every chance that safety standards can be lifted by threat of legal action or consumer backlash - if not !!! - As noted above - I can not see how anything can be done - Ships travelling through territorial waters or landing at ports can be controlled - meet our standards or don't come into our waters/ports - and having said that, the shipping industry has plenty of problems with cheap labour and poor maintenance - it's not perfect - with many of the shipping lines sailing under suspect flags. Can it be changed ? - of course it can if the Westren countries wanted to restrict the importation of goods and services from countries which do not meet adequate standards of safety, human rights, pollution emissions etc, - but will it happen - What do you think!! and on that note I'll finish Don't despair and keep fighting for what you believe in - but don't expect quick change - so don't get despondent Reply | Quote 0   0

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