Beyond the barricades: the quest for global health, safety and emergency response training standards in the oil and gas industry.

Marcella, Rita; Pirie, Tracy

Abstract

An independent study, covering senior leaders in sixty companies across the globe, was conducted by the Aberdeen Business School at Robert Gordon University, to assist OPITO in exploring how internationalisation impacts on emergency response and basic safety requirements in the oil and gas industry. The major findings relate to the barriers that exist for companies in achieving consistency and effectiveness in training delivery, competency and behaviour change. The research team identified a number of overall conclusions regarding the challenges for the industry at present:, Most health and safety and emergency response (HS/ER) training enhancements had been developed reactively in response to high profile incidents and/or legislation change; Only one company cited their moral obligation to employees as being a driver for training programme development. There was believed to be significant variation in training standards regionally with regional standards largely felt to be of a lower calibre than international standards. There are difficulties in assuring consistency of training quality globally due to the myriad of standards current in the industry. Competency was not necessarily being delivered by training with training not infrequently being seen as a tick box exercise. Employees at every level need to take ownership and engage with HS/ER philosophy at all times. Leaders need to be seen to embrace its importance, guiding their employees into a safer future working environment. There should be extensive communication and consultation with all key stakeholders involved in the industry globally in order to ensure that a framework of common global standards be developed that is effective, consistently applicable and capable of independent and objective benchmarking. There was overwhelming support for the development of global guidelines or frameworks in relation to HS/ER training: however, it was very strongly articulated that these must be flexible to the local operating environment, and should be demonstrably international, not just an extension of UK based models.

Citation

MARCELLA, R. and PIRIE, T. 2010. Beyond the barricades: the quest for global health, safety and emergency response training standards in the oil and gas industry. Unpublished internal document. Dubai: OPITO International FZ LLC.

• Report Type: Research Report
• Deposit Date: Sep 16, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 16, 2015
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1294