Creating a Common Safety Culture

Abstract

Guest editorial Most people who work in the oil and gas industry know what a “permit to work” is. A blue permit indicates that it covers “cold” work—work with no potential to create a naked flame, hot surface, spark, or explosion. Having a permit ensures that the job site is safe for the team to do its work, that the team understands the potential risks of the work it is planning to do, and that it agrees to put suitable controls in place. I spoke recently at the Piper 25 Conference, a 3-day event held in Aberdeen to mark the 25th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster that killed 167 people on board the oil platform in the North Sea. On display at the conference was a copy of Cold Work Permit 23434. The tattered paper was found in the accommodation module that was recovered from the seabed. The permit was for the replacement of a relief valve on the B condensate pump. It was this work that was at the heart of the initial release and explosion when the operators tried to start the pump even though it was not ready. The rest, tragically, is history. It begs an obvious question and a supplementary one: Could something similar happen again and, if so, can we do anything to reduce the chances of it happening? The oil and gas industry has made huge advances in safety management over the past 25 years. The goal-setting regime, safety cases, and verification schemes have been hugely beneficial. We have greater collaboration and everyone now talks about safety as being important and most people genuinely believe it. However, the industry is still experiencing too many serious events which, if we are unlucky, could easily result in another tragedy. We are a global industry in which good practices are shared across our operations. The loss of life in any country has to be as unacceptable as a tragedy on our own doorstep. Over the past 25 years since Piper Alpha, there have been more than 25 multi-fatality accidents in our industry. In June, two people died in an accident on a gas platform in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. Last year, three died in an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and 11 died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the GOM in 2010.