Significant progress has been seen in efforts to improve maritime safety around offshore oil and gas activities, members of a partnership forum were told in Aberdeen yesterday.
Senior representatives from the energy and fishing industries plus the Scottish and UK governments met to discuss the steps already taken by the Fisheries Legacy Trust Company (FLTC) to improve the safety of mariners.
The initiative – launched at the north-east’s biennial Offshore Europe oil and gas show in September 2007 – is the outcome of co-operation between Oil and Gas UK, the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) and National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations. Their primary aim was to build a trust fund to maintain comprehensive, up-to-date information on all seabed hazards related to oil and gas activities, and to make this data available for use by the fishing industry.
FLTC executive chairman Niall Scott said yesterday’s lunchtime forum was an ideal opportunity to discuss the great strides being made and also offered a platform for further talks and collaboration.
He added: “The FLTC has made significant progress in several projects to inform fishermen of seabed structures and equipment related to oil and gas activities on the UK continental shelf and, as a result, improve their safety.
“It is imperative that representatives from the oil and gas, and fishing industries are well informed of these developments.”
SFF vice-president James Brown said fishing leaders were glad of the opportunity to be working with the UK oil and gas industry – through the FLTC – to improve safety at sea.
Among the measures initiated to help to protect lives is www.fishsafe.eu, a new website which provides fishermen and other mariners with detailed information about the location of oil and gas companies’ operations in UK waters.
The site, which is administered by the Kingfisher information arm of seafood industry body Seafish, carries the same details in English, French, German, Dutch and Norwegian.
Yesterday’s forum also gave Colin Mulvana, deputy to the secretary of state’s representative (Sosrep) for maritime salvage and intervention at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, a chance to explain how Sosrep Hugh Shaw co-operates with other organisations to remove or reduce risks to people, property and the environment arising from marine accidents.
There were also updates on other FLTC projects, such as the development of a global positioning system device – FishSAFE 2 – that provides fishermen with audible and visual warnings of seabed obstructions.
FLTC has also taken over responsibility for promoting the collection, processing and distribution of detailed information on the location and status of infrastructure and seismic surveys in the UK continental shelf.