Offshore safety training

As shown in Figure 19.1, the offshore oil and gas business is especially dependent on contractors— ranging from very large companies all the way to small organizations and individuals. The agency responsible for offshore safety in the United States is the BSEE. This agency has paid particular attention to the management of contractors. Their philosophy is that the responsibility for what takes place offshore lies with the operator and that the operator therefore has to make sure that the contractors work safely and in conformance with the rules. It is up to the operator to ensure that the contractor knows what to do and that all contract workers are properly trained and evaluated. 

GWO. 2012. Global Wind Organisation Standard Basic Safety Training (Onshore/ Offshore), http //www.ewea.org/policy-issues/health-and-safety/gwo-standards/. 

An offshore oil producer requires all subcontractors to undergo safety training and to conform to stringent safety standards. I was told that it had terminated the contract of one of its supply vessels because of an unacceptably high number of injuries and incidents. This is perhaps the most dramatic evidence of private sector safety pressures uncovered in this study. 

The Safety and Environmental Management System (SEMS) requirements to do with offshore training are described and discussed in Table 7.1 (some formatting changes have been made). Additional information to do with offshore training is provided by the American Petroleum Institute (API) (2001). 

Safety and antipollution device training per API RP T-2, Recommended Practice for Qualification Programs for Offshore Production Personnel Who Work with Anti-Pollution Safety Devices (latest edition), for those who maintain and test safety valves and controls. 

The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) is an international association representing offshore and marine engineering companies. IMCA has two core activities, one focusing on health, safety, and the environment and the other on training and competence. These activities are divided into the four technical divisions of marine vessels, diving, offshore survey, and remote systems. Within these areas, IMCA publishes safety guidance documents, technical reports, and fact sheets for the marine contracting sector. It also collects and reports data on... 

With the exception of a list of PINCs for renewable energy, BOEM s procedures and requirements for inspecting and auditing an offshore wind farm s SMS are not yet well developed. As formal policies of inspections and audits are developed, BOEM will need to ensure that its inspection process places the responsibility of safety compliance on the lessee and not on BOEM itself through a checklist of PINCs. Internal or operator audits help a company internalize a safety culture and encourage ownership of the company s safety program. BOEM can ensure that the lessee s internal audits are conducted appropriately through its own audits. The next section discusses the importance of properly trained personnel. 

The very large numbers of installations of the PCHF on offshore platforms has ably demonstrated the PI benefits which result from their use - namely the opportunities given to innovative offshore operators to cut costs through improved safety and greatly reduced topside platform size and weight. This is visible in specific areas such as compressor after coolers, gas coolers, gas dehydration trains and cryogenic processes for the removal of inerts from streams. 

This phase will require some operator and service staff safety awareness training (for both onshore and offshore resoiuces). It will also ultimately require eom-petency management and addressing of any cultural issues, especially with offshore resources. One way forward is to ask key staff on the services to join the active Logica safety community to gain exposure to safety activities and network with staff who are already aetive participants. 

O Connor, P. and Flin, R. (2003). Crew resource management training for offshore oil production teams. Safety Science, 41, 591-609. 

Permit-to-work systems should ensure that work is planned and carried out under adequate safety precautions in cases where the exposed persons do not have personal control of the involved hazards (Section 7.6). At the Ymer offshore platform, modifications of one of the compressor trains must take place while the platform is producing. This work has been subcontracted to an installation firm, BCC Installations. At the start of this work, the platform manager wants to be confident that the established work-permit-system is adequately designed and implemented. Your group is assigned the responsibility for the planning and execution of an audit. Its scope is the implementation of the work-permit-system for this particular modification work. Your tasks are to ... 

The standard recognizes that contractors are widely used in the offshore industry and that they should provide safe and reliable equipment and effective training to their employees. However, RP 75 does state, This recommended practice does not require contractors to develop a SEMP. However, contractors should be familiar with the operator s SEMP and should have safety and environmental policies and practices that are consistent with the operator s SEMP. Further discussion regarding contractors is provided in RP 75 s Appendix A. 

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