Safety levels in the UK offshore oil and gas industry have substantially improved, according to data published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), with both the combined fatal and major injury rate and major hydrocarbon releases at their lowest since the HSE began regulating the industry in 1991.
For 2 years running, there were no fatalities offshore, and the number of major injuries recorded in HSE's 2008-09 reporting period was 30, which was 14 less than the 2007-08 figures.
Because the HSE does not cover air and marine transport activities, its data don't reflect an April helicopter crash in which 16 people died.
"The combined fatal and major injury rate reduced to 106 per 100,000 workers in 2008-09, compared with 156 in 2007-08 and 146 in 2006-07," said the HSE. "The number of major and significant hydrocarbon releases, regarded as potential precursors to an incident, also showed marked improvement with 61 in 2008-09, compared with 74 in 2007-08."
Judith Hackitt, chairwoman of the HSE, urged industry leaders not to "take their eye off the ball" as the industry struggles during the global economic downturn. She called for investment in safety to continue.
The trade association Oil & Gas UK welcomed the improvement in the statistics and stressed that it was committed to operating safely.
Malcolm Webb, chief executive of Oil & Gas UK said: "These reductions demonstrate the efforts that have been made to prevent incidents happening that result in people getting hurt. These include continuing and substantial investment in workforce training, such as the new Minimum Industry Safety Training Standard, and increasing understanding of asset integrity amongst industry leaders through sharing sessions and the new asset integrity workshops."
Over the past 4 years, the offshore industry has invested more than £4 billion on asset integrity. Step Change in Safety, the UK's flagship safety initiative, has created a specific asset integrity work group to support industry-wide engagement on asset integrity issues. The Hydrocarbon Release Reduction Toolkit has also been revised and updated.
Webb stressed the importance of committing the workforce to safety awareness.
"Involving and listening to the people at the sharp end will help us reach our goal of making the UKCS the safest place to work in the world-wide oil and gas industry," he said. "Earlier this year, Step Change in Safety set up a dedicated workforce engagement work group, and its leadership team has been further extended to ensure the needs and concerns of the offshore workforce are heard and addressed."
