During what has now become a prolonged downturn for the oil and gas industry, authorities worldwide are keeping their sights set on maintaining high safety standards in oil and gas operations, particularly offshore. At a time when reduced budgets could translate into cost-cutting in all the wrong places, those monitoring industry's safety record are justifiably concerned.
"We're worried. It's our job to be worried," Anne Myhrvold, director general of Petroleum Safety Authority Norway, told a safety lunch during Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) 2016 Exhibition & Conference in Stavanger late last month. "The industry must ensure that constant attention is paid to risk and safety-in every single operation and job," she said.
Safety at risk
"It's our job to challenge you, the industry, when we fear that safety in the industry is going into reverse," Myhrvold said. "Put bluntly, our role is to be the regulator, to ask questions. And that's what we're doing here today by asking whether safety is at risk."
Over the last year in particular, this has been precisely the question being put to industry by PSA Norway: Is safety now at risk?
"We're currently working to determine if accidents, incidents, trends, and results over the past couple of years justify the claim that safety is under threat," Myhrvold stated.
"During this work, we've pursued a discussion with those of you who're responsible for day-to-day operations in the petroleum sector. What do you think about this issue-and what are your reasons for thinking as you do?" she asked.
The very state of awareness that there exists such a question-Is safety at risk?-is as important as probing to answer the question itself, she said. Safety, she said, is not all about "figures, trends, and analyses."
Myhrvold said, "Behind these numbers stand people-colleagues we're all working together to protect, just as much in periods with demanding changes and financial pressures as in the good times."
Looking to the future
Safety could be enhanced, she suggested, through greater efficiency, while "emphasizing that the industry must always have its eye on the future." This could be accomplished by "looking back and learning" from the past, she said.
"At the same time, it's important to learn from what goes well and to identify why it does so," she said, with this challenge: "I would urge everyone to roll up their sleeves and to identify and implement measures which reduce risk."
Myhrvold emphasized that individual companies as well as industry as a whole "would suffer if the petroleum sector failed to keep its eye on the future." She said, "Wrong choices and poor quality could end in disaster."
She said, "I have said before, and will say again, that understanding both the immediate and the long-term consequences of the changes is crucial. Tomorrow will be shaped today. Taking care of expertise and knowledge is the key to a safe future for this industry."
In its annual report published in February, PSA Norway summarized some of the most important challenges thought to face industry in 2016. In the report, Myhrvold used 10 key terms to describe what industry's position should be on these challenges. The terms were concern, efficiency, focus, change, short-termism, robustness, prudence, collaboration, risk, and confidence.
The last of these, confidence, was perhaps the most heavily emphasized. Myhrvold said that while restructuring would continue to make "a clear mark" on operations and safety in Norway and elsewhere, she had confidence in the future.
"It mustn't be forgotten that the industry has a lot of knowledge and experience that can be built on," she said. "Thanks to clear regulatory requirements, enforcement of these demands, and a responsible industry, we have a solid foundation for future work."
She concluded, "But the companies must always accept that safety is a perishable commodity. Yesterday's good results carry no weight on the day an accident strikes."
Steven Poruban | Managing Editor-News
Steven Poruban was hired as staff writer for Oil & Gas Journal in October 1998. Two years later, he was promoted to senior staff writer. In October 2004, he was then promoted to senior editor. He now serves as managing editor-news.
Before working for OGJ, Steven was a reporter for Gas Daily and editor of Gas Transportation Report. He attended Boston University then transferred to and graduated from Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa., with a BA in English in 1993.
