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Oil & Gas UK and Step Change in Safety confirm continued industry focus on offshore safety
| Date: | 19 Mar 2009 | | Details: | At the Step Change in Safety leadership day on 19 March, attended by over 80 managing directors from member companies, Oil & Gas UK and Step Change in Safety reaffirmed the industry's ongoing commitment to safety, stressing that the current economic downturn will not shift the industry's focus away from the important issues of safety and skills.
The statement, signed on behalf of Oil & Gas UK by its co-chair Bob Keiller, and on behalf of Step Change in Safety by its co-chair Rick Cohagan is as follows:
"Good practice in safety and sustained investment in developing the skills of the workforce always make the best of business sense. This is even more crucial when business conditions are difficult. There will therefore be no change in our resolve to help the UK offshore oil and gas industry to become the global leader in safety performance.
Our goal continues to be to make the UK the safest place to work in the worldwide oil and gas industry and a recognised global centre of excellence in workforce training and development.
This industry will continue to invest directly in safety, asset integrity, skills and training throughout the economic cycle and we will support Step Change in Safety and OPITO the Oil and Gas Academy to ensure that safety continues to be our top priority. We can do no less."
Malcolm Webb, Oil & Gas UK's chief executive, said: "2008 has seen great achievements. Step Change in Safety has not only managed to increase the industry focus on asset integrity, but has also acted to improve workforce engagement and encouraged greater sharing of experiences and lessons learned. Everyone in our industry understands that we must not jeopardise these achievements.
"The industry's continuing commitment to people, skills and training is clear with the introduction in 2009 of the new Step Change in Safety minimum industry safety training standard and this year we will again be recruiting more than a hundred young people on to the industry's Technician Training Scheme, the most successful modern apprenticeship scheme in the UK.
"It is encouraging to see that our increased efforts are starting to deliver tangible results. We expect to see a clear downward trend in safety incidents, injuries and dangerous occurrences when we receive HSE's statistics for 2008/9. Although that's encouraging, we must of course never be complacent. Our commitment to safety will always remain a priority, irrespective of the oil price or economic situation."
ENDS | | Contact: | For further information, contact Britta Hallbauer on 07891769113 |
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For all press enquiries please contact:
Trisha O'Reilly at Oil and Gas UK. Tel: 0207 802 2422 Email: toreilly@oilandgasuk.co.uk
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