An oil major has won approval for a workforce competency management system from an industry skills organisation.
Employees of Nexen Petroleum UK are now working to a Competence Management System (CMS) across three North Sea assets – Buzzard, Scott and Golden Eagle, approved by Opito.
Opito said the CMS guarantees Nexen’s UK staff are performing their roles to “global best practice criteria”.
Nexen deployed around a third of its UK-based workforce to deliver the assurance scheme workscope, which involved developing and enhancing the Chinese-owned firm’s own in-house process. This led to more robust roles and responsibilities being identified and created within the organisation, Opito said.
Opito carried out a series of audits covering 15 different safety-critical roles across the business, including offshore installation managers, superintendents, supervisors, lead technicians and technicians.
John McDonald, managing director of Opito UK, said: “Having a system for managing workforce competence independently approved to industry best practice not only ensures there is measured development of employees’ skills sets, it helps to set and maintain a framework for continuous improvement and performance management, driving efficiencies and delivering cost benefits across a business.
“The assurance of a skilled and competent workforce is a vital tool in helping companies succeed in the current climate, but more importantly, it ensures that we continue to build a sustainable industry for the future.”
He added: “It is extremely encouraging to see an operator like Nexen raising the bar for the rest of the industry by investing in its North Sea workforce in this way.”
Ray Riddoch, UK Managing Director UK and SVP Europe at Nexen, said: “This was a tremendous team effort involving several departments across Nexen collaborating together and involved around 135 personnel who carried out this challenging task with diligence and integrity over an extended period ensuring that a Best In Class system was delivered and one can be sustained long term.”
Nexen said it has plans to develop the Opito-approved CMS further and extend it throughout its global operations in the near future.
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