Industry leaders reflected on a year spent “facing a common enemy” during the closing session of the Oil and Gas UK HSE conference.
The impact of Covid-19 on health and safety was a key topic as they ended the two-day event, alongside carbon emissions and recruitment challenges for the sector.
Iman Hill, executive director of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) described how the global industry “pulled together”.
“Our key learning is that we faced a common enemy on a global spread. We responded in isolation at national levels, but we’ve got a resilient industry and we dealt with the crisis well.
“It’s not the first time, we all remember other examples of when we pulled together, so I think whenever there’s a common purpose amongst us we put everything aside and we share leanrings and we drive basically fro the best of our industry.”
Going forward, Ms Hill said the industry needs to “start speaking up more” about its safety record and its role in achieving net zero targets in order to put “a balanced picture forward” for the public.
Joining her on the panel was Jonathan Ward, director of environmental operations at the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED).
Stifled slightly by the Scottish purdah election period now in place, Mr Ward did say that the regulator is “developing policy” on net zero, which it hopes to “deliver in time for COP26 and further down the line”.
He added that he was “very impressed be the progress of the industry” in the last year on its low carbon work.
Fellow regulator – the Health and Safety Executive – was represented in the session by energy division director Chris Flint, who said a rising maintenance backlog in the North Sea is the “evidence” of reduced manning levels offshore.
He described that issue as “clearly a focus for us as a regulator and for industry”.
His colleague, Oil and Gas UK HSE director Trevor Stapleton acknowledged that the industry is “going to have so much to do when we do get back to normal manning levels”.
Mr Stapleton also echoed the comments of Ms Hill on the future of the sector.
He said: “We’ve got one eye on COP26, that’s out there, embracing change, recognising that the net zero HSE evolution will give rise to some exciting opportunities.
“But also we shouldn’t apologise for our industry, we’ve done some great things, we’ve met energy needs across the globe.”