As we note the 30th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster, it feels appropriate to take stock and consider where the oil and gas sector is now in terms of safety and competency, and the measures that have been taken to safeguard against any future such incident.
While there have been various incidents during this intervening period, none have resulted in such a devastating, singular, mass loss of life.
As the custodian of the energy industry’s training, emergency response and competency standards, OPITO has always believed that every person has the right to go to work and come home again safely.
All personnel should have confidence in those they work with side-by-side no matter what their role is, who they are employed by, or their experience. Having the tools, belief in oneself and competency to react in an environment where a simple human error could have the most serious of consequences, is paramount to a safe working environment.
In the immediate aftermath of Piper Alpha, OPITO’s remit was refocused as the industry took a good look at itself and the processes that led to that fateful night on July 6, 1988. From there, it pulled together and decided to take collective responsibility for its skills and workforce safety training agenda.
The sector realized that while individual companies will always do what they need to do to stay competitive, in a high percentage of cases, a shared approach best serves the industry, especially in areas such as the creation and implementation of common training standards.
One of the industry’s most successful safety critical courses is the Minimum Industry Safety Training (MIST) and its international, sister-standard, IMIST, for those outside the UK.
Until MIST was introduced in 2008, basic safety training was carried out to different depths of understanding and across varying safety elements, creating a lack of consistency across the industry. MIST covers nine basic safety elements that all offshore workers are liable to be exposed to during their working life. These include an introduction to the hazardous offshore environment, safety observation systems, risk assessment, permit to work, platform integrity, manual handling, working at height, mechanical lifting and control of hazardous substances.
Leading-edge standards such as these have been developed by OPITO – before and following Piper Alpha – in line with the oil and gas environment, and are regularly reviewed by industry forums to ensure they continue to meet best practices.
These same standards – of which there are now 114 ranging from Basic and Specialist Emergency Response Training standards to Workplace Competence Assessment standards for safety critical roles – have been recognized and adopted throughout the global industry.
But there is still more work to be done if we are to keep up with the changing, ever-evolving technology of the oil and gas sector.
The working environment has changed dramatically since 1988 and it will continue to do so as the landscape shifts again with the anticipated increase in digitization, robotics and automated processes. In some instances, the advent of these innovations will help to reduce risk, for example, the use of drones to carry out inspection works.
However, there is still a need for companies to plan for the long term to ensure that the industry will have access to suitable skills across all manner of roles that are predicted. If we do not have the capabilities to maintain the infrastructure and assets safely, then future development will be threatened. The industry must learn from previous mistakes to ensure that a suitably skilled workforce is in place to deliver results.
One of the major advances to the way safety-critical training is being delivered came to fruition late last year. The digital transformation of OPITO’s Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training (BOSIET) was a long-term, demand-led initiative to create a change in workforce training through innovation.
Over 150,000 people went through the original three-day primary emergency response BOSIET training last year. The training is widely regarded in the industry as the ‘must have’ certification to enable a worker to go offshore. It includes helicopter survival, emergency first aid, sea survival, fire-fighting and lifeboat training.
The digital development, which reduces the course duration dramatically, followed calls from industry for regulated online learning with world-class credibility that delivers efficiencies both to the individual learner and the companies involved.
The online accessible alternative allows the theory to be carried out at any time, from any location and at the trainee’s own pace. This is a perfect example of a modern approach which is fully aligned with the next generation who are growing up with technology in every area of their lives.
There’s no denying that over the past three decades the sector has gone through several bust and boom times, and this has impacted the number of people working in the sector at various times. So where does this leave us? The main priority for the sector must be to remain focused on the continued safety, skills and competence of the workforce.
Safety should never be compromised and competency should flow through a business, not just be confined to one department within a company which exists to demonstrate compliance with regulations.
Adopting common global standards and engaging the essential support to apply them is a challenge. The ability to achieve this goal lies firmly at the feet of the industry. Only with a consistent approach to keep up with the times will we continue to see safety improvements which benefit everyone, thereby safeguarding the future of the workforce and the sector.
John McDonald
CEO
OPITO
