We’ve all been to one of those parties. It starts quietly with a handful of people and before too long, everything just seems to take off. Everyone who is anyone is there. Drinks are flowing, connections are made, news is exchanged. It’s busy and bustling. New friends seem like old friends and you can’t imagine life – and the next party – without them. Could this be the greatest party ever?
Hours go by and before you know it, 3am hits. You look around; the crowd is dwindling, the music is quieter and only the real party animals remain, along with the people who are clearing up. So where’s the party going next? Is it time to call it a day, or move on to somewhere else and get things going again?
In the last few weeks, you could be forgiven for thinking the oil and gas party has reached 3am. Two huge decommissioning projects have hit the headlines. The price of oil is dropping – worryingly. Even successful companies are making cuts.
But the party is by no means over. Between now and 2040, £37 billion is forecasted to be spent on decommissioning existing assets and expenditure on decommissioning is expected to peak at £1.7 billion in 2016, according to the latest economic report from Oil and Gas UK.
Thousands of highly skilled and talented people will be in demand to continue working in the North Sea for decades to come. And here’s the point. As the industry moves into a new phase – or as the party moves on – people will still be involved. And all of these people have to be safe.
At our asset integrity event last week, we were asked many questions but one stood out. “How, in the context of changing landscapes, cost pressures and a drive for greater production efficiency, do we ensure that we do not lose our focus on safety?”
There is no silver bullet, but we must confront the fact that these emerging issues can be seen as competing, which essentially makes safety more complex. They don’t exist in isolation. They are interdependent and one cannot be achieved at the expense of the other. These issues must be viewed as complimentary. A safe operation is both cost conscious and efficient. A profitable business is a safe one.
Please trust us when we say that Step Change will not spoil the party. We will continue to make the industry a safer one, and are committed to working through complexities to make it so. And as decommissioning becomes more common, we will see more complexities.
One thing is certain. Regardless of whatever phase the industry is in, safety will always be at the party – from beginning until the end.
Les Linklater is a team leader at Step Change in Safety.
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