Even in these days of automation and computer control, equipment on an offshore platform or in an inland refinery is only as good as the people who program and operate it.
And the same pieces of equipment can operate efficiently only with regular, planned inspection and maintenance programs.
After the well publicized problems of the international tanker business during the past year, the oil industry is trying to reinforce the message that experienced crews and well maintained vessels are just as important as a modern drilling rig and proficient drillers.
SHIPPERS COMMENT
Executives of two of the largest oil transporters, British Petroleum Co. plc and the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, have some disturbing comments on the state of the world's tanker fleet.
Capt. Mike Laws, Shell International Marine's operations manager, says substandard tankers remain in use because of ineffective policing measures for current safety legislation. He estimates one in 10 tankers is breaching international safety rules.
To maintain standards, Laws says, major charterers carry out their own inspections and reject about 250 of the 2,500 ships/year that are checked. However, the substandard tankers still manage to pick up business.
Pressures in the tanker business in recent years all appear to have worked against quality. Some owners have taken a long term view, but a number are more shortsighted. Laws places part of the blame for poor standards on the emergence in the last decade of investors in tankers who lay down tight operational budgets for their managers.
Nicholas Hartley, chief executive of BP Shipping, says the effects of substandard vessels threaten the health of the whole tanker sector. Tighter controls on inspection and operation of tankers would help, but the biggest advance in safety would come from a significant improvement in the average ship's officer and of management ashore.
Capt. Horst Ramforth of PA Consulting group says new attitudes are needed toward crewing that recognize that seamen are more than just drivers of ships. The public calls for higher environment standards at a time when the industry is seeing the effect of reducing crew costs.
Very large crude carriers with crews of 20 transport cargoes worth $140 million. Few industries place the equivalent of $7 million under the control of each man. The tanker industry, Ramforth says, needs to recruit more high caliber, well educated manpower and give them a better career structure and an attractive salary and benefits package.
'THINK OIL'
Prof. David Moreby of Britain's Institute of Marine Studies believes tanker crews should be taught to "think oil" so they share some common values with managers ashore and with their charterers. Crews must be taught to appreciate that at times only 1 in. of steel separates 2 million bbl of crude from the sea.
What's more, he points out, new equipment poorly maintained and handled by inexperienced operators is less effective than older equipment that has been lovingly cared for and operated by seasoned veterans.
Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.