IT HAS been a difficult and sensitive few months for the global oil&gas industry. While never an activity universally beloved by all parts of society, recent events have seen the sector come under increasing scrutiny, with inevitable questions raised over how we balance the global demand for energy with our ability to safely tap into increasingly remote hydrocarbon reserves.
Contrary to some of the more negative headlines, what we at OPITO – as the custodian of industry standards in emergency response, training and competence in the worldwide oil&gas industry – are seeing is a growing commitment to improving workforce safety and competency in territories that were previously closed to such ideals.
To be clear, this is not a new trend – but it is a growing one. In the last five years, we have seen an impressive 270% surge in the numbers of companies adopting our standards.
The number of workers being annually trained to OPITO standards has risen sharply – from 33,000 in 2005 to 140,000. There is now what I believe to be a world-class training network which spans 30 countries.
This continues to grow, with companies as far afield as Malaysia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Iraq and Kazakhstan adopting the emergency-response and occupation standards developed to reflect industry best practice.
To me, these figures demonstrate a clear desire in the offshore industry for uniformity when it comes to the safety and competency of its workforce.
We held our first international board meeting in Abu Dhabi recently, when representatives from more than a dozen employers came to hear about our progress in the Middle East. What is particularly significant is that there is no compulsion for these guys to take up such standards.
Whereas operators in the UK won’t let a technician work on the plant unless they have attained the OPITO standard and demonstrated competence in the workplace, elsewhere in the world, basic safety and competency training varies dramatically from region to region, and lacks consistency.
In an industry like ours, where workers from any number of different companies and countries are working side by side, a common approach to training is the only way of ensuring that everyone is capable of carrying out their job to the same high standard and return home safely at the end of the day.
I view this as a basic right as an employee of an organisation that values its people.
From the North Sea to the rest of the world, our own experience is showing that there is a fundamental shift in how the industry as a whole is thinking and behaving, and this change is based on a raised awareness of the tangible benefits improved standards can have for your employees, your business, the industry as a whole and the world which we all share.
David Doig is group CEO of OPITO Strategic
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