LORD Douglas Cullen will join an impressive line-up of leading oil and gas industry figures sharing their experiences and insights during our second annual Safety and Competency Conference in Abu Dhabi later this month.
A senior member of the Scottish judiciary, he is one of the most respected peers of our time having led the inquiries into the shootings at Dunblane, the Ladbroke Grove Rail disaster and the Lockerbie bombing appeal.
For our industry, he is perhaps best known as the author of the Cullen Report into the Piper Alpha disaster. The 106 recommendations he made for improving control of major hazards offshore and the sweeping changes which followed rewrote the rules on offshore safety.
We set out to deliver a thought-provoking and stimulating conference which covers the key areas on which we need to concentrate in order to keep safety and competency at the forefront of global oil and gas operations.
I am delighted that Lord Cullen will deliver the keynote address, giving the view of the inquirer into major incidents and the common threads which emerge. His presentation promises to be one of the most revealing in terms of how we can ensure a competent workforce that significantly improves safety rather than ticks the necessary compliance boxes.
It is this theme which is at the heart of this year’s conference – and at the core of everything we do in our industry.
Through Lord Cullen and the other high-profile, experienced and passionate speakers taking part, I hope the industry can use their expertise, knowledge and pragmatic approach to get to the root of the competency conundrum.
The conference will cover a wide range of topics and provides a forum for improving standards of safety and competency in the global workplace.
It will be opened by Gordon Ballard, UK chairman of Schlumberger, with the line-up also including Kieron McFadyen, executive vice president S&E at Royal Dutch/Shell, who will present a paper entitled Goal Zero on the relentless leadership drive.
Malcolm Duncan, director of operational excellence and performance at Weatherford International, will provide an overview of how companies can make positive changes at an operational level before Eugene Burke, director of science and innovation at SHL Group, discusses cracking the DNA of safety – an answer to why accidents keep happening.
We will then reveal the results of the research conducted by Professor Rita Marcella, Dean of Aberdeen Business School, into how companies are assuring their workforce is competent, rather than simply seeking to be compliant.
It is vital organisations contribute to the continual evolution of world class industry practices that protect the workforce. Around 160 delegates attended the inaugural 2010 conference, representing a wide cross-section of senior figures from national and multi-national oil and gas operator and contractors.
This year, we expect to welcome many more. Numbers are already significantly higher than last year and we expect the conference to reach full capacity.
o Supported by Atlas, ADC and Nabors Drilling, OSCC 2011 takes place on November 22 at the Rotana Hotel, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. It is entirely free to attend.
David Doig is OPITO group chief executive