Safety standards in the North Sea continue to improve, a new report has stated, despite several high-profile industrial incidents in the past year.
Oil & Gas UK’s annual study into offshore health and safety compliance has found an industry-wide commitment to constant improvement was keeping workers safer than ever.
The findings come despite the abandonment by French oil firm Total of its Elgin platform in the central North Sea following a major gas escape and two helicopter ditchings at sea forced by major technical issues on the aircraft.
In terms of safety performance, the study found the number of reportable hydrocarbon releases had almost halved over the past three years, although that improvement was short of target.
It also ranked the offshore industry as the third best performer of all UK industrial sectors when it came to non-fatal accidents a better safety record than the public sector, retail or general manufacturing and stated there had been a noticeable and steady reduction in the incidence of over-three day injuries.
The report said there had been no fatalities during the year and performance breaches related to safety critical equipment identified by an independent competent person had fallen to an all-time low.
Oil & Gas UK health and safety director Robert Paterson said: “Our industry has long performed well in terms of non-fatal accidents, better than sectors that would generally be considered lower hazard, including retail and the public sector.
“While several major incidents have had to be addressed in the period covered by this report, non-fatal, over-three day, and combined fatal and major injury rates have all been in steady decline and cases of non-compliance with verification are at an all-time low.
“Significantly, the report shows that the industry has also achieved a 48% reduction in the number of hydrocarbon releases over three years, falling just short of the tough target set by the industry in 2010 to halve releases over that time.”
Mr Paterson said industry organisation Step Change in Safety had made real progress in making the offshore environment a more safe place to work.