Safety Research for the Offshore Industry: Progress with Implementation of HSE's Strategy

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Research has played an important role in helping ensure safety in the offshore oil and gas industries and will continue to do so. It has always been a high priority in Offshore Safety Division (OSD) with the objective of keeping the Division aware of all developments with a potential bearing on the health and safety of the offshore workforce. Consequently, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is currently funding a major research programme aimed at increasing safety offshore by investigating a broad range of factors which govern the integrity of engineering design, technology, management and operations. Annual HSE expenditure on this endeavour is of the order of £6.5m but taking into account that about one third of the projects are funded jointly with the offshore industry the combined programme consisting of over 300 live projects has a value exceeding £50m. The large majority of the research is undertaken by external contractors based in the UK and abroad. The main objectives of this offshore safety research programme are to: assess the extent and nature of the risks involved in work offshore;support specific enforcement activities, policy initiatives or accident investigations;produce information to develop technical guidance to support legislation;inform national and international standards making;validate models (including computer models) enabling risk calculations to be made and inform regulatory decisions;produce necessary health and safety information where the structure of the industry prevents it being produced by the industry (at least in an appropriate timescale).