The energy industry’s member-led safety organisation Step Change in Safety is today (Wednesday 5th July) celebrating this year’s Offshore Safety Award winners as part of its ‘Positively Influencing Safety’ event. The sold-out event saw over 340 energy industry attendees at Aberdeen’s Beach Ballroom yesterday.
Held on the week of the 35th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster, Step Change in Safety invited the industry to come together to engage, inspire and, most importantly, act. The full-day event was hosted by Andrea Brymer of STV.
Attendees heard from inspirational keynote speaker Dr. Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, a British firefighter, psychologist and writer. Sabrina is the Chief Fire Officer of the West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service and, in 2019, was selected as one of Marie Claire’s Future Shapers.
The Step Change in Safety team also shared their recent industry ‘Process Safety Leadership Survey’ results, which saw 450 industry leaders from more than 70 companies take part. A white paper with full survey findings is to follow this month.
This was followed by a panel session to discuss and reinforce the importance of learning from adversity.
Panel session speakers included:
🔺Fuzzy Bitar of bp
🔺Gus Carrol of Empirisys
🔺Rhona Flin, Professor of Industrial Psychology at Robert Gordon University
🔺Ken Robertson, Non-Executive Director at HSE
🔺Carolyn Pierpont, Division SHEQ Manager at Boskalis Offshore Energy
🔺Sam Ash of CNOOC
As always, the annual event also includes the Offshore Safety Awards (OSA), jointly organised with OEUK. Attendees were invited to engage with the OSA category finalists before voting for this year’s safety champions. This year’s winners are:
🔺 Award for Maritime Safety, sponsored by Marine Safety Forum
MPA Marine Department, Montrose Port Authority
🔺 Award for Safety Rep of the Year, sponsored by OPITO
Paul Dow, Wood
🔺 Award for Welfare & Wellbeing, sponsored by bp
Joel Devine, Oceaneering
🔺 Award for Operational Integrity, sponsored by CNOOC International
Elgin Fabric Maintenance Campaign Team 2022, TotalEnergies
🔺 Award for Workforce Engagement
Fiona Welsh, TAQA Group
🔺 Sharing and Learning, sponsored by Spirit Energy
David Jamieson, SALUS Technical
🔺 Special Recognition Award
Reverend Gordon Craig
Lunch was generously provided by TotalEnergies, and guests had the opportunity for post-event networking and drinks to end the day.
Steve Rae, Executive Director of Step Change in Safety, says, “Yesterday’s ‘Positively Influencing Safety’ event and the Offshore Safety Awards was one of celebration and recognition for companies and their employees.”
Steve continues, “Together with our growing membership, we continue to strive to improve safety through engagement, leadership and collaboration and hosting the event on the week of the 35th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster puts further emphasis on the need for continuous learning and sharing of information. Our annual event cements this as over 340 industry and safety leaders come together to engage, inspire and most importantly, act. There were very open and honest accounts of the impact of safety incidents and the legacy of Piper Alpha during yesterday’s event. With a constantly evolving workforce of new starts, green hats and those heading to retirement, knowledge transfer is key to ensure that those lessons learned are carried with us.”
Steve concludes, “We would like to thank all attendees who joined us as to in person to engage, inspire and most importantly, act and to principal sponsor Harbour Energy for their continued support in our annual event.”
Mark Wilson, OEUK’s HSE and Operations Director, comments, “Recognising companies who have gone above and beyond in the name of maintaining safe operations across our industry is so important.
“Oil and gas will remain a vital resource to the UK for decades to come as we transition to cleaner energies, so it’s important that working conditions and operations remain safe.
“The UK Continental Shelf is one of the safest basins in the world to do business, and I’d like to say a heartfelt well done and thank you to all who play an important part in helping us maintain this leadership.”
Picture caption: (left to right – Steve Rae – Executive Director of Step Change in Safety, Reverend Gordon Craig & Mark Wilson, OEUK’s HSE and Operations Director) – Reverend Gordon Craig receives a ‘Special Recognition Award’ to close the 2023 Offshore Safety Awards (OSA), jointly organised by Step Change in Safety and OEUK.