Whilst there are plenty of very positive stories coming from the offshore energy sector there are still frequent reports of accidents occurring on platforms and vessels and, tragically, loss of lives.
Many are major incidents which made headlines globally, but there are also still far too many smaller accidents occurring regularly across the offshore energy industry.
The safety and wellbeing of personnel is the primary reason that MTCS was founded. By providing guidance, training and competence programmes, we set out our purpose to support the people working on safety critical offshore activities, specifically in the realms of high voltage and high pressure hydraulics.
Yes, undertaking competence programmes does require commitment and investment, but what price can put on someone’s safety and, ultimately, their life?
The compensation awards for personal injury and loss of life are well documented, running from tens of thousands into the million-pound plus settlements, with equally hefty legal fees in addition.
One can also factor into this equation the potential for environmental impact and, the bottom line, decline in production: Pemex (Mexico) recently reported an output loss of 700,000 barrels on the day of an accident in July at the Nohoch-A platform and having to “shut down practically all the wells in the area.”
Even forgetting the price of a competence programme and looking at the value it affords: knowing your personnel, your colleagues and you yourself are working to agreed and approved processes with safety the primary focus is an objective that surely we can all sign up to.
The race towards renewables.
Increasingly, our work has seen MTCS engaged in offshore wind and renewables, a rapidly growing sector with aspirations here in the UK for over 100,000 jobs by 2030, achieved by attracting and retaining 10,000 people per year between now and then.
With this incredible surge in workers required over the coming years to manage and deliver the expected offshore wind project pipeline, our thoughts naturally turn to competence.
Data just recently published in the 2022 Incident Report by G+, the Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organisation, highlighted 868 reported incidents and injuries occurring on vessels, wind turbines and onshore.
Primarily these incidents involved lifting operations, manual handling and incidents during access/egress but these activities require competence just as much high voltage, high pressure hydraulics or launch and recovery activities.
The need for competence to keep pace with progress.
A recent report by the Floating Wind Offshore Wind Taskforce stated that “up to 11 ports around the UK will need to be transformed as fast as possible into new industrial hubs to enable the roll-out of floating offshore wind at scale.”
Words such as “swift and decisive action” are used in the media to push home the urgency to achieve targets, but this increasing acceleration is, we fear, not always allowing a crucial factor to keep pace: people.
The skills of this workforce is one area which is frequently cited as being key to achieving these ambitions: “To ensure there is a skilled workforce available to support the sector’s expansion, the report calls for a strategy to tackle skills shortages in key areas such as planning and consenting, high voltage electrical technicians, engineers, turbine technicians, and those with a range of digital skills.”
Worryingly, what is scarce in the many reports and recommendations is the role of competence to support these skills.
Likewise with oil and gas; whether exploring new grounds or fully realising production at existing sites, or the remediation and decommissioning work at unproductive sites and aged facilities, the skills to undertake the tasks must be grounded by competence.
In conclusion
We fully agreed with Mr Bruce Craig, partner at legal firm Pinsent Masons, in his recent comments published on the Global Underwater Hub (GUH) website in a commentary titled ‘Marine safety can never be taken for granted’ and which also welcomed Maritime Safety Week.
In fact, it was Mr Craig’s closing comments which provided the impetus for us to draft this article:
“People who work on a vessel at sea, on an offshore wind turbine or an offshore installation are operating in some of the world’s most challenging environments and it’s only right that they are protected by the highest safety standards the industry can provide. Maritime Safety Week is a welcome, if sobering, reminder that the industry has a duty to maintain and improve standards wherever possible and that there is never any room for complacency.”
Competence isn’t solely in the gift of the maritime sectors in which MTCS operate, and our work increasingly has seen transference of knowledge from that industry to onshore organisations with no tangible link to offshore energy.
The need for appropriate training, testing and qualifications, adherence to approved processes and ongoing assessment should be a requirement to ensure a competent workforce makes for a safe workplace.
Richard Warburton
Managing Director, MTCS (UK) Ltd
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Article references:
Reuters: ‘Mexico’s Pemex to lose some 100,000 barrels per day of crude this month after fire’
Upstream: ‘Fire breaks out at Pemex platform offshore Mexico’
https://www.upstreamonline.com/safety/fire-breaks-out-at-pemex-platform-offshore-mexico/2-1-1483344
G+ Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organisation, G+ 2022 Incident Data Report
Offshore Wind Industry Council: ‘Over 100,000 offshore wind jobs by 2030 with decisive action on skills’
Global Underwater Hub: ‘Maritime safety can never be taken for granted says legal expert’
