Safety champions of the North Sea have been recognized at the 2019 Offshore Safety Awards in Aberdeen. The annual awards ceremony, jointly organized by Oil & Gas UK and Step Change in Safety and sponsored by Total, celebrates the outstanding individuals and companies striving to improve safety across offshore operations on the UK continental shelf (UKCS).
Matt Abraham, health, safety, and environment and supply chain director for Oil & Gas UK, said, “Recognizing the achievements of those who have gone above and beyond in the name of maintaining safe operations across our industry is critically important. We continually strive to ensure the UKCS remains one of the safest basins to do business in the world, and I’d like to say a heartfelt ‘well done’ and ‘thank you’ to all our winners, finalists, and entrants in playing an important part in helping us achieve this.”
Finalists were considered for six awards: Safety Leadership, Workforce Engagement, Innovation in Safety, Safety Representative of the Year, Operational Integrity, and Maritime Safety.
Speakers at the event included Jean-Luc Guiziou, managing director of Total E&P UK, and workforce speaker Mike Scotland, a roustabout with Atlas Professionals and an elected safety representative.
Commenting on the awards, Guiziou said, “Safety is vital for the offshore industry. We need to work together when it comes to safety and share our experiences of the risk and challenge. It’s also important that we recognize when companies and individuals get it right and share that best practice. Total is delighted to sponsor these awards, and I offer our congratulations to everyone who has been nominated for an award.”
After hearing pitches from each of the finalists, the winners for each award were voted on by attendees at the awards ceremony using an interactive format.
Winners
- The Maritime Safety Award, sponsored by Marine Safety Forum, was won by Oleg Krushynin from Solstad and Eric Wiseman from Seacroft Marine Consultants in recognition of their efforts to reduce the risk of injury when loading and discharging tubulars from a vessel. Seacroft launched a “no climb” policy and instead produced videos and photographic instructions on how the tubulars should be loaded without workers having to climb on top of them. This change to procedure proved so successful that it has been rolled out to other vessels within the operating fleet.
- Safety Representative of the Year, sponsored by Dräger, was awarded to Lee Chegwidden, production technician at Apache, in recognition of his dedication to his role as an elected safety representative (ESR). Chegwidden was praised for his continued focus on promoting and sharing best safety practice as well as lessons learned with his offshore team. Throughout his career at Apache, Chegwidden has been repeatedly reelected as an ESR by his peers and continues to play a key part in shaping Apache’s safety culture and Step Change in Safety’s industry activities.
- China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) International and DNV GL clinched the Innovation in Safety Award, sponsored by Bureau Veritas, in recognition of their groundbreaking use of virtual reality, designed to help eliminate hydrocarbon releases, prevent major incidents, and ultimately save lives. The companies developed an industry-leading virtual-reality simulator that allows employees to walk through scenarios inspired by real-life hydrocarbon-release events, providing users with a full understanding of the circumstances that led to the events, the outcome, and the lessons learned.
- BP Clair Ridge safety representatives and operations technicians were named winners of the Workforce Engagement Award, sponsored by Peterson, for their innovative Process Information Prevents Explosions (PIPE) tours, which help engage and build process plant awareness among those working on the Claire Ridge project. The 1-hour tours run weekly and are led by an operations technician and a safety representative who show participants the main areas of the process plant and explain the various systems and potential hazards.
- The Operational Integrity Award, sponsored by Aker Solutions, was won by CNOOC International in recognition of its Hydrocarbon Release Prevention (HRP) Program. This initiative has delivered a step change in safety performance across the company’s three North Sea installations as well as a positive shift in culture. Central to the success of the initiative was the direct involvement of senior leaders and the engagement of the workforce.
- Shell UK’s Brent Decommissioning Project was voted the winner of the Sharing and Learning Award, sponsored by Spirit Energy, for its efforts to reduce the number of eye-related incidents suffered by its workers during Brent Delta decommissioning activities. Recognizing that they had to encourage a downward trend in eye-related incidents, Shell introduced specific processes, procedures, and additional equipment and ensured heightened awareness of the issue as well as rigorous implementation. This has resulted in a reduction of such incidents by 80%.
Steve Rae, executive director of Step Change in Safety, said, “It’s heart-warming to see the ingenuity, critical thinking, and effort that has gone into the finalists’ award submissions here today. These awards provide an engaging and collaborative platform which brings together like-minded individuals and teams who all share a tangible passion for ensuring that safe operations remain central to everything they do. The contributions of all our finalists are commendable and demonstrate that opportunities still exist within our industry to continually enhance our approach to improving safety.”