Research into global oil and gas safety and competency standards has found that the industry still has safety challenges.
This was revealed yesterday by Opito International, an Aberdeen-based skills, learning and workforce-development body.
In its drive to improve and align safety and competence standards in oil and gas, it commissioned Aberdeen Business School at Robert Gordon University to research emergency response and basic safety training requirements in the industry.
The independent study is seeking to identify good practice from around the world, highlight specific regional challenges, examine the barriers to effective and consistent training delivery and quantify the value to companies and the industry.
Emerging themes from the research to be completed next month show that, while countries and organisations are striving towards better safety, there are still significant barriers.
These include getting employees to take responsibility for their own health and safety, the lack of effective safety leadership within organisations, the need for better competence-based training and common standards across the industry.
David Doig, chief executive of Opito International, said: “Safety is paramount and the industry has a fundamental duty to make sure that its people are competent and trained to the best possible standards.
“If we were dealing with ignorance, the solution would be simple but unfortunately we are still dealing with culture and behaviours as well as local issues, protectionism, legacy, history and ‘not invented here’ syndromes.
“Our aim is to achieve buy-in from the industry globally for one set of common standards to improve safety for every worker, no matter where they operate in the world. We have to move beyond the barricades and make sure that the obstacles highlighted in the research are overcome once and for all if we are to prevent accidents and save lives.”
The findings will be presented at the Opito Safety and Competence Conference 2010 in Abu Dhabi on November 25.
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