The man who led the Piper Alpha disaster inquiry has backed a new conference in Aberdeen to help challenge risks caused by workers in the oil and gas industry.
Lord Cullen of Whitekirk is to lead the speakers at the Another Perspective on Risk event in Aberdeen next month.
The one-day conference, at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, will see hundreds of delegates tackle the problem of human risk factors in the industry.
Among the speakers at the event, organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, will be David Pritchard, who chaired the US commission into the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Lord Cullen said the event, aimed at highlighting and eliminating possible human risk elements in the industry, would help firms translate possible issues into new working practices.
“People do make errors or mistakes but if we can devise means by which they are avoided through making them more error wise and alert to spotting things that are amiss then I think this will help greatly,” he said.
“I would be very pleased to see positive conclusions come from the conference.
“There is quite a lot that has been said and discovered about the human element in operations over the years without it ever being completely dealt with. But it remains an important subject.
“It is a considerable problem that should be dealt with from an organisational point of view and from the point of view of the individual.”
The conference will also feature a panel session including Step Change in Safety leader Les Linklater and union boss Jake Molloy, while Lillian Espinoza-Gala from the Berkley University’s Centre for Catastrophic Risk Management and William Libby, director of key accounts for Control Risks, will take part in plenary sessions.