REMEMBERING PIPERTHE NIGHT THAT CHANGED OURWORLD

NEWS ITEMS • STORIES • INFORMATION • YOUR WORDS • QUIZ

PIPER ALPHA– the night thatchanged our worldTea Shack News speaks to one survivorand two men whose fathers were on boardPiper Alpha on that horrific night

SHELL’SSAFETY DAY:

SIMPLIFICATION –SIMPLES!Jake Molloy, of the RMTunion, looks at theproblem of time, moneyand a system whichworkers don't have faithin. So how do we makethat better? P4

Workers takepart in a rangeof activities P7

Issue 10, July, 2016

Winnerof the 2015

Energy InstituteAwards for

Communication

The sky was alight and acrid smokebillowed into the cold air the night167 men lost their lives – 28 years onand the scars of the Piper Alpha dis-aster have still not healed.

It was the biggest and most tragicincident to have taken place in theNorth Sea to date. Tea Shack Newsspoke to one survivor and two menwhose fathers were on board PiperAlpha on that horrific night.

Shane Gorman’s dad, David, wasa 41-year-old safety officer on theplatform when he died on the nightof July 6, 1988. Shane explained tous how the tragic event affected hislife and those he loves. “There wasmylifebeforePiperAlphaandthereis my life after it,” he said.

Shane was just 18 in 1988. He wasstarting his career in the army andthe weekend of July 3 was a time tocelebrate with his friends and fam-ily. Shane said: “I was going off tothe Army for the first time, to do mybasic training, and my dad was go-ing offshore, so we had a family din-ner to say good bye.”

On the Sunday afternoon, Shanewas dropped off at the train stationby his dad, who was heading off-shore the next day – neither knew itwouldbethelast timetheysaweachother.

In those days, basic trainingmeant no phones, newspapers, TVsor radios. “My Commanding Officercame to visit and told me my dadhad been in an accident. As a safetyofficer, dad had been involved in in-vestigating incidents before so Ithought nothing of it,” he said.

“The following day I was told togo home, still having no clear ideawhat had happened. I was droppedoff at the train station in Darlingtonand the first thing I knew of thescale of Piper Alpha incident was

when I went to buy a Mars Bar andI saw all the newspapers with pic-tures of a piece of twisted metalsticking out of the sea.

“It was the hardest journey I haveever been on. I cried the whole wayhome and was comforted by two lit-tle old ladies. At that point I had noreal information but I just knew hewasn’t coming home.

“When I got home, everyone wastrying to support me and be there,but it was absolute chaos. Therewere people everywhere in thehouse, the press were calling andknocking at the door. It was horri-ble. I stayed there all weekend but

there was nothing I could do. I feltcompletely helpless.

“Surprisingly, and bizarrely, de-spite the huge number of peopletrying tosupportme, I foundmyselfdealing with it all completely andutterly alone. The overwhelmingbarrage and intensity of negativeemotions are indescribable, whichmakes them incredibly difficult tocommunicate.

“The understanding you have ofyourself and the world around youbreaks down and many differentuncontrollable feelings and emo-tions rush in and out of your being,but they are also all there at once.”

Shane, who now works offshoreand is a safety rep, said he haslearned to live with what happened,but the accident will always affecthim and his family. “For a good 10years after the accident my life spi-ralled into chaos. I wasn’t suicidal,but I didn’t care about myself orwhat happened to me. People don’trealise the impact these things haveon those who are left behind,”Shane said.

“Piper Alpha became sensationalphotos of a big fire ball, but the realimpact was quickly forgotten. It’s

about the 167 people who died atwork and the effect that had ontheir families and children.”

Shane, who is a dad-of-two, saidhe thinks there have been huge im-provements in safety offshore sincethe Piper Alpha but that more can,and should, be done. He said: “Themessage has to come from within. Ifeel passionate about safety off-shore; I want to make a difference.Dad felt that way too; he knew itwasn’t safe on Piper Alpha.”

GaryCalder’sdad,Harry,wasalsoon the platform that night along-side Shane’s dad. Harry survivedthe night, but Gary, who was 20 atthe timeof the incident, saidhisdadwas never quite the same after thatnight.

Gary, who is a safety rep offshoreand now a dad himself, said: “I re-member thinking my dad was veryquiet for a long time after Piper. Ithink he feels a lot of guilt that hesurvived and many other peoplehadn’t. I don’t think he ever had theintention of going offshore againbut he did. I wouldn’t say it madehim angry but he was a changedman after Piper.”Continued on Page 3

Survivor Steve Rae asks ‘Could I havemade a difference?’

“Piper Alphabecamesensationalphotos of a bigfire ball, butthe real impactwas quicklyforgotten”

Tea Shack News want to hear from youe-mail: editor@teashacknews.com #PlayYourPart

HE’S INTHE SHED:Ever feel like you’regetting under thewife’s feet after afew days backonshore? P6

Issue 10 | July 20162 July 2016 | Issue 10 www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn 3

Stories fromthe shackWe had the top brassoot the other day forone of they ‘Town Hallmeetings’. We all piledinto the mess to listento this guy who wasgoing to tell us aboutour future. He said thatrumours about shuttingdown the platform werea bit exaggerated, butit could happen if wedidnae pull our socksup and get productionimproved. He said if wecould improveproduction we could bethere until 2045.

One of the ladsshouted; “Is thatquarter to nine thenight or the year?”

Engaging theworkforce to savethe industryThomas Hunter is an offshore Elected Safety Rep. He’spart of the Step Change Leadership Team and the G18 – agroup of safety reps which speaks for the workforce

What’s onshore got to do with it?You may have an impact on the management ofMajor Accident Hazards – wherever you are

“I rememberthinking ‘an80ftjumpwasn’t inthesurvivaltraining that Ihavebeeninvolved in’”

Tea Shack News is produced by Step Change in Safety –a not-for-profit tripartite organisation involving the unions,regulators and industry. It aims to share industry good practiceand information to help oil and gas industry workers do theirjobs safer. All resources and events are available free to itsmembers.

Editor:

Contributors:

Gillian Simpson (Step Change in Safety)

Charlotte Jordan (Bread PR)

Emma Robertson (Step Change in Safety)

Fiona FitzGerald (DNV GL)

Gillian Taylor (Plus Performance)

Jennifer Phillips (Oil & Gas UK)

Libby Keiller (Bread PR)

Dionne Abolghassem

Winnerof the 2015

Energy InstituteAwards for

Communication

We’d love to hear your news and stories.Here’s how you can contact us:

www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn

editor@teashacknews.com

#playyourpartRead thepublicationonline

Thomas Hunter

Please . . . don’t pick meWith hundreds of miles of waterbetween the platform and the of-fice, it’s easy to understand whyonshore workers, in some roles,don’t see the influence they mighthave on keeping their offshorecolleagues safe.

Major Accident Hazard e-learn-ing has been developed to helpeveryone understand a little moreabout managing hazards offshore,to help educate those onshoreworkers who do not undertake

MIST (Minimum Industry SafetyTraining). Topics include theSafety Case, Safety and Environ-mental Critical Elements (SECEs),asset integrity and the use of bar-riers to prevent accidents happen-ing.

Glen Sheppard, an ElectedSafety Rep who sits on the work-group that helped develop thecourse, said: “It’s important peo-ple realise how their role, no mat-ter how unrelated they believe it

is, may have an impact on themanagement of Major AccidentHazards. From buyers sourcingthe correct spare part, through tologistics having it sent outquickly, to HR employing compe-tent people to fit and test it… theyall have a part to play.”

The module is free to members ofStep Change in Safety. Seewww.stepchangeinsafety.net for moredetails

Gary was in Germany with theArmy at a friend’s 21st birthday partywhensomeonenoticed thenewscov-erage of the incident on TV. He said:“Someone asked me what platformmy dad was on. I replied ‘It’s some-thing Alpha’ and that’s when I re-alised what was happening. I tried tocontact my mum but couldn’t getthrough.” It wasn’t until the nextmorning he spoke to her and she toldhim his dad had survived.

“My dad never really spoke to usabout what happened. I think hespoke to some of his friends but he’sa very private and strong person anddoesn’t let his feelings show,” addedGary.

Gary said his dad was a massiveinfluence in his life. “When I decidedto go offshore, I had a very long chatwith my dad and he was full of re-assurance. He told me to follow myinstinct, which I know he did, andthat’s why he is here today to pass onwords of wisdom. My family aren’t

too worried when I go offshore, evenafter what happened to my dad. Ispent years in the Army and they al-ways say ‘You’d get off wouldn’tyou?’” he added.

Amanwhodid ‘getoff’ PiperAlphawas Steve Rae, now a consultant inthe oil and gas industry, based inAmerica.

In a heartfelt description of theweeks leading to the night of July 6,1988, Steve identified several safetyobservations and hazards which henow wishes he had raised with hissuperiors at the time.

He said: “My first thoughts when Iarrived on Piper Alpha were that itlooked old and tired – it was 12 yearsold. I thought it looked run down,however, having worked on otherplatforms, I didn’t see this as a prob-lem and felt at the time that we justneeded to get on and get the drillingjob completed.”

StevedescribedhowPiperhadbeenmodified significantly over the yearsandhow“itwasconfusing tonavigate

– like a rabbit warren”. He could notremember ever being shown roundthe accommodation or taken to theappropriatesafetymusterareaswhenarriving on-board. “I thought I’d justget used to it and that’s just the way itwas,” said Steve.

Steve and his colleagues were onthe drill floor when the first explo-sion occurred. They made their wayto the accommodation block butSteve decided to return to the drillfloor because the accommodationmodule had already started to fillwith smoke.

Steve met a colleague who had alsoreturned to the drill floor – both hadignored orders to go to muster. Hesaid: “There was no way off except tojump the 80ft into the North Sea. Thewhole wellhead deck was being con-sumed by fire and I remember think-ing ‘an 80ft jump wasn’t in the sur-vival training that I have beeninvolved in’.”

As the pair were building up their

Cast your mind back to yourschool days where you arestanding in a line in the sportshall, facing forward, backagainst the wall… waiting.

Waiting for that moment ofeuphoria because you know youwill be picked first, or waiting, stom-ach churning, because you know you’llbe one of the last to be picked.

Remember that feeling?Now look around you, this isn’t a sports hall,

this is the work place. Your team used to bedouble the size, you’ve lost colleagues, mentorsand friends.

Everyone has their heads down, makingthemselves busy, working all hours, because no-one wants to be picked next.

In this time of low oil price,those who wanted to be pickedhave gone, some of those withthe knot in their stomach, believ-ing they were next, have gone.But you survive – those around

you survived. But who, or what isnext?

Nobody really knows. What we doknow is that now, more than ever,we need to pull together, look out foreach other and start caring again.Did we ever really stop? Maybe not,but what did change was that we allstarted looking out for ourselves, andonly ourselves, because we didn’twant to be picked next.

Is it the “F” word that’s stopped us

caring? Stopped us speaking up? Stopped usfrom putting our head above the parapet? Fear.Fear that if we say something, if we speak up,we’ll be next?

But what happens when we stop speaking up?We’ve come so far as an industry, we’ve workedhard at changing behaviours, we’ve done thecourses that make us think about the impact ofour actions, and our in-actions. Are we preparedto go back to nobody speaking up? When acci-dents and incidents are the “norm”, people get-ting hurt, and the impact that has on our workand personal lives?

Let’s not dwell on that sick, knotted feeling inour stomach. Let’s keep doing what we are goodat, which is looking out for one another and en-suring that each and every one of us goes homesafely.

As part of the G18 I attended the‘Shared Principles and Values’event, organised by Energy JobsTaskforce.

The first thing I noticed wasthe number of suits. Everyoneknew each other and most of thedelegates were MDs, VPs, CEOsor presidents and some peoplefrom government departments.

We heard speeches from lead-ers of industry organisations andthey were what I expected: savemoney, co-operate to work moreefficiently, we can move forwardin the current climate, etc etc.

During discussion time, mytable – two MDs, two seniormanagers and two guys fromgovernment bodies – was quickto blame high prices and the lackof government help, and it wasclear to me they were focused onmoney. Then all eyes fell on me. Itold them that things are differ-ent for the workforce. The knee-

jerk reaction is to downsize theworkforce and cut wages. Yes,this is a quick saving, but whathappens after that?

The key to saving money is lis-tening to the workforce. Mostideas coming from the Men inSuits are not sustainable: “stopdoing this, cut that, do things likethis”. But most of the time, thebest ideas come from the drillfloor or the tea shack. The menand women working on the plat-form know what works and whatdoesn’t. Everyone listened andagreed.

The next activity was more in-teractive. Questions like ‘How canwe maintain the future of the in-dustry?’ and ‘What can we do toimprove performance?’ wereasked. One of the union guysreplied with ‘Engage the work-force’. We had to stand beside theposter with the comment weagreed with. ‘Engage the work-

force’ had the most people stand-ing next to it. So it looked likemost people in the room knewthat the key to saving our indus-try lies with the workforce.

After that we pulled togetherideas on how to engage the work-force. After an hour my grouphad a plan and presented it tothe room. Another two groupshad chosen the same topic andtheir plans were pretty much thesame as ours:

Talk and listen to the work-force, not just in meeting roomsbut on the platform, in the teashacks and on the job site.

My take on the event: everyoneis looking for a way forward, butit has to be as a whole industry.The next few years are going tobe tough but I am sure we canget through them with the work-force leading the way and withsafety being the number one pri-ority.

Continued from Page 1

courage to take the lifesaving leapthere was another explosion. Whenthey reached the water they felt asense of relief until a massive ball offire and gas blew from the platformtowards them in the sea. Bothducked below the water in a bid toavoid the flames. The pair were res-cued by a support vessel where, onceon-board, they watched helplessly asPiper Alpha burned in the night air.

Steve said since the incident he hasoften wondered if his safety obser-

vations would have made a differ-ence to the outcome of the night. Heis keen to make everyone aware ofthe importance of Major AccidentHazard management and com-mends the Joined-up Thinking filmsto aid this.

Steve said: “These films referencefactors which are known to con-tribute to incidents; change manage-ment, communications, compla-cency, control of work, competence,culture and commitment. Each filmdescribes a real incident and pre-sents an opportunity to increase ourawareness and understanding ofrisks and hazard, if we chose to playour part.”

The men who died on Piper Alphaare commemorated in the film Re-membering Piper which can bedownloaded from https://www.stepchangeinsafety.net/safety-re-sources/safety-videos or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxH-faweV3vs.

The film identifies failings in theprocesses on-board Piper and asksthought-provoking questions aboutwhether the issues that led to thePiper disaster are being effectivelycontrolled today.

The Joined-up Thinking packs fo-cussing on controlling Major Acci-dent Hazards, and in particular hy-drocarbon releases, are availablefrom the Step Change in Safety web-site. The workgroup that created theJoined-up Thinking videos is cur-rently making another series, thefirst one being released in August2016.

Photograph of Shane withdad, David, and, left, theback of Shane’s photo

Gary with dad, Harry, and brother Ricky

PIPER ALPHA: the night that changed our world

Issue 10 | July 20162 July 2016 | Issue 10 www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn 3

Stories fromthe shackWe had the top brassoot the other day forone of they ‘Town Hallmeetings’. We all piledinto the mess to listento this guy who wasgoing to tell us aboutour future. He said thatrumours about shuttingdown the platform werea bit exaggerated, butit could happen if wedidnae pull our socksup and get productionimproved. He said if wecould improveproduction we could bethere until 2045.

One of the ladsshouted; “Is thatquarter to nine thenight or the year?”

Engaging theworkforce to savethe industryThomas Hunter is an offshore Elected Safety Rep. He’spart of the Step Change Leadership Team and the G18 – agroup of safety reps which speaks for the workforce

What’s onshore got to do with it?You may have an impact on the management ofMajor Accident Hazards – wherever you are

“I rememberthinking ‘an80ftjumpwasn’t inthesurvivaltraining that Ihavebeeninvolved in’”

Tea Shack News is produced by Step Change in Safety –a not-for-profit tripartite organisation involving the unions,regulators and industry. It aims to share industry good practiceand information to help oil and gas industry workers do theirjobs safer. All resources and events are available free to itsmembers.

Editor:

Contributors:

Gillian Simpson (Step Change in Safety)

Charlotte Jordan (Bread PR)

Emma Robertson (Step Change in Safety)

Fiona FitzGerald (DNV GL)

Gillian Taylor (Plus Performance)

Jennifer Phillips (Oil & Gas UK)

Libby Keiller (Bread PR)

Dionne Abolghassem

Winnerof the 2015

Energy InstituteAwards for

Communication

We’d love to hear your news and stories.Here’s how you can contact us:

www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn

editor@teashacknews.com

#playyourpartRead thepublicationonline

Thomas Hunter

Please . . . don’t pick meWith hundreds of miles of waterbetween the platform and the of-fice, it’s easy to understand whyonshore workers, in some roles,don’t see the influence they mighthave on keeping their offshorecolleagues safe.

Major Accident Hazard e-learn-ing has been developed to helpeveryone understand a little moreabout managing hazards offshore,to help educate those onshoreworkers who do not undertake

MIST (Minimum Industry SafetyTraining). Topics include theSafety Case, Safety and Environ-mental Critical Elements (SECEs),asset integrity and the use of bar-riers to prevent accidents happen-ing.

Glen Sheppard, an ElectedSafety Rep who sits on the work-group that helped develop thecourse, said: “It’s important peo-ple realise how their role, no mat-ter how unrelated they believe it

is, may have an impact on themanagement of Major AccidentHazards. From buyers sourcingthe correct spare part, through tologistics having it sent outquickly, to HR employing compe-tent people to fit and test it… theyall have a part to play.”

The module is free to members ofStep Change in Safety. Seewww.stepchangeinsafety.net for moredetails

Gary was in Germany with theArmy at a friend’s 21st birthday partywhensomeonenoticed thenewscov-erage of the incident on TV. He said:“Someone asked me what platformmy dad was on. I replied ‘It’s some-thing Alpha’ and that’s when I re-alised what was happening. I tried tocontact my mum but couldn’t getthrough.” It wasn’t until the nextmorning he spoke to her and she toldhim his dad had survived.

“My dad never really spoke to usabout what happened. I think hespoke to some of his friends but he’sa very private and strong person anddoesn’t let his feelings show,” addedGary.

Gary said his dad was a massiveinfluence in his life. “When I decidedto go offshore, I had a very long chatwith my dad and he was full of re-assurance. He told me to follow myinstinct, which I know he did, andthat’s why he is here today to pass onwords of wisdom. My family aren’t

too worried when I go offshore, evenafter what happened to my dad. Ispent years in the Army and they al-ways say ‘You’d get off wouldn’tyou?’” he added.

Amanwhodid ‘getoff’ PiperAlphawas Steve Rae, now a consultant inthe oil and gas industry, based inAmerica.

In a heartfelt description of theweeks leading to the night of July 6,1988, Steve identified several safetyobservations and hazards which henow wishes he had raised with hissuperiors at the time.

He said: “My first thoughts when Iarrived on Piper Alpha were that itlooked old and tired – it was 12 yearsold. I thought it looked run down,however, having worked on otherplatforms, I didn’t see this as a prob-lem and felt at the time that we justneeded to get on and get the drillingjob completed.”

StevedescribedhowPiperhadbeenmodified significantly over the yearsandhow“itwasconfusing tonavigate

– like a rabbit warren”. He could notremember ever being shown roundthe accommodation or taken to theappropriatesafetymusterareaswhenarriving on-board. “I thought I’d justget used to it and that’s just the way itwas,” said Steve.

Steve and his colleagues were onthe drill floor when the first explo-sion occurred. They made their wayto the accommodation block butSteve decided to return to the drillfloor because the accommodationmodule had already started to fillwith smoke.

Steve met a colleague who had alsoreturned to the drill floor – both hadignored orders to go to muster. Hesaid: “There was no way off except tojump the 80ft into the North Sea. Thewhole wellhead deck was being con-sumed by fire and I remember think-ing ‘an 80ft jump wasn’t in the sur-vival training that I have beeninvolved in’.”

As the pair were building up their

Cast your mind back to yourschool days where you arestanding in a line in the sportshall, facing forward, backagainst the wall… waiting.

Waiting for that moment ofeuphoria because you know youwill be picked first, or waiting, stom-ach churning, because you know you’llbe one of the last to be picked.

Remember that feeling?Now look around you, this isn’t a sports hall,

this is the work place. Your team used to bedouble the size, you’ve lost colleagues, mentorsand friends.

Everyone has their heads down, makingthemselves busy, working all hours, because no-one wants to be picked next.

In this time of low oil price,those who wanted to be pickedhave gone, some of those withthe knot in their stomach, believ-ing they were next, have gone.But you survive – those around

you survived. But who, or what isnext?

Nobody really knows. What we doknow is that now, more than ever,we need to pull together, look out foreach other and start caring again.Did we ever really stop? Maybe not,but what did change was that we allstarted looking out for ourselves, andonly ourselves, because we didn’twant to be picked next.

Is it the “F” word that’s stopped us

caring? Stopped us speaking up? Stopped usfrom putting our head above the parapet? Fear.Fear that if we say something, if we speak up,we’ll be next?

But what happens when we stop speaking up?We’ve come so far as an industry, we’ve workedhard at changing behaviours, we’ve done thecourses that make us think about the impact ofour actions, and our in-actions. Are we preparedto go back to nobody speaking up? When acci-dents and incidents are the “norm”, people get-ting hurt, and the impact that has on our workand personal lives?

Let’s not dwell on that sick, knotted feeling inour stomach. Let’s keep doing what we are goodat, which is looking out for one another and en-suring that each and every one of us goes homesafely.

As part of the G18 I attended the‘Shared Principles and Values’event, organised by Energy JobsTaskforce.

The first thing I noticed wasthe number of suits. Everyoneknew each other and most of thedelegates were MDs, VPs, CEOsor presidents and some peoplefrom government departments.

We heard speeches from lead-ers of industry organisations andthey were what I expected: savemoney, co-operate to work moreefficiently, we can move forwardin the current climate, etc etc.

During discussion time, mytable – two MDs, two seniormanagers and two guys fromgovernment bodies – was quickto blame high prices and the lackof government help, and it wasclear to me they were focused onmoney. Then all eyes fell on me. Itold them that things are differ-ent for the workforce. The knee-

jerk reaction is to downsize theworkforce and cut wages. Yes,this is a quick saving, but whathappens after that?

The key to saving money is lis-tening to the workforce. Mostideas coming from the Men inSuits are not sustainable: “stopdoing this, cut that, do things likethis”. But most of the time, thebest ideas come from the drillfloor or the tea shack. The menand women working on the plat-form know what works and whatdoesn’t. Everyone listened andagreed.

The next activity was more in-teractive. Questions like ‘How canwe maintain the future of the in-dustry?’ and ‘What can we do toimprove performance?’ wereasked. One of the union guysreplied with ‘Engage the work-force’. We had to stand beside theposter with the comment weagreed with. ‘Engage the work-

force’ had the most people stand-ing next to it. So it looked likemost people in the room knewthat the key to saving our indus-try lies with the workforce.

After that we pulled togetherideas on how to engage the work-force. After an hour my grouphad a plan and presented it tothe room. Another two groupshad chosen the same topic andtheir plans were pretty much thesame as ours:

Talk and listen to the work-force, not just in meeting roomsbut on the platform, in the teashacks and on the job site.

My take on the event: everyoneis looking for a way forward, butit has to be as a whole industry.The next few years are going tobe tough but I am sure we canget through them with the work-force leading the way and withsafety being the number one pri-ority.

Continued from Page 1

courage to take the lifesaving leapthere was another explosion. Whenthey reached the water they felt asense of relief until a massive ball offire and gas blew from the platformtowards them in the sea. Bothducked below the water in a bid toavoid the flames. The pair were res-cued by a support vessel where, onceon-board, they watched helplessly asPiper Alpha burned in the night air.

Steve said since the incident he hasoften wondered if his safety obser-

vations would have made a differ-ence to the outcome of the night. Heis keen to make everyone aware ofthe importance of Major AccidentHazard management and com-mends the Joined-up Thinking filmsto aid this.

Steve said: “These films referencefactors which are known to con-tribute to incidents; change manage-ment, communications, compla-cency, control of work, competence,culture and commitment. Each filmdescribes a real incident and pre-sents an opportunity to increase ourawareness and understanding ofrisks and hazard, if we chose to playour part.”

The men who died on Piper Alphaare commemorated in the film Re-membering Piper which can bedownloaded from https://www.stepchangeinsafety.net/safety-re-sources/safety-videos or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxH-faweV3vs.

The film identifies failings in theprocesses on-board Piper and asksthought-provoking questions aboutwhether the issues that led to thePiper disaster are being effectivelycontrolled today.

The Joined-up Thinking packs fo-cussing on controlling Major Acci-dent Hazards, and in particular hy-drocarbon releases, are availablefrom the Step Change in Safety web-site. The workgroup that created theJoined-up Thinking videos is cur-rently making another series, thefirst one being released in August2016.

Photograph of Shane withdad, David, and, left, theback of Shane’s photo

Gary with dad, Harry, and brother Ricky

PIPER ALPHA: the night that changed our world

Issue 10 | July 20164 July 2016 | Issue 10 www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn 5

• Printer in the locker room(which doubled as the permitcontrol facility) had beenbroken for approximately 4months

• OIM was not aware of theissue as he uses an alternativeprinter

DISCUSS

Does this seem trivial? What could be the consequences?

The Regulator’s View

Simplification– SIMPLES!

Jake Molloy,RMT

Union Opinion

Change must have nobearing on safe operations

An early reflection from HSE’s Interim Headof Energy Division and promotion of the“Helping Great Britain Work Well” Strategy

Playing My Part – Simon Burrows

Go WESTVicky Lamont, Offshore Safety Discipline Lead at Shell, and BobEgan, Head of Workforce Engagement at the HSE, and both co-chairs of WEST (Workforce Engagement Support Team) outlinetheir commitment in 2016

Deirdre Michie,Chief Executive,Oil & Gas UK

Industry Insights

The business climate continues tochallenge us and that is whycompanies are working hard toturn our situation around.

We have to change to getthrough this difficult downturn.We have to be more competitive,more co-operative and more effi-cient. We are spending morethan we are earning in the NorthSea and no business in any sectorcould survive that.

Companies are finding ways ofworking more effectively. Exam-

ples include taking new ap-proaches to organising marine lo-gistics which involves more inputfrom employees and which hashelped bring down costs.

Change must have no bearingon safe operations despite ourneed to work smarter. In fact, weare hearing case studies of moreefficient working in safety.

One operator – with safety andwellbeing of the workforce cen-tral to its core values and culture– set out to reduce productivetime lost through the volume ofinductions for personnel unfamil-iar with their North Sea assets –or ‘green hats’.

After analysing its process, thecompany discovered that the

planning behind inductionscould be tightened up and runmore efficiently. It calculated thatover 57,000 hours had been lostin 2014 through Non-ProductiveTime (NPT).

Changes made improved safetyto the platform, reduced NPT as-sociated with ‘green hats’ by 11%and saved approximately£500,000.

Those are the kind of changesneeded to help us get throughthis downturn. And, with billionsof barrels still to be recoveredfrom the North Sea, we will getthrough it.

For years now offshore workers have criti-cised the use of observation cards acrossdifferent operations. Claims of the sys-tem being abused as a ‘numbers game’or otherwise used to ‘nail’ workers foralleged performance or behavioural is-sues.

The same sort of criticism has been lev-elled at the use of risk assessments andtool box talks (TBT), with many believingthe risks are assessed in line with thegaffer's opinion – as long as you tick all theboxes and sign the TBT sheet the gaffer ishappy! And if there's an incident, the firstthing the gaffer does is pull out these sheetsand point the finger – “you should haveseen this or stopped the job, you signedthe forms!”

Another big gripe is having to dotraining courses for all these systems.The operators’ system, the contractors’system, your employer’s system – what awaste of time and money.

And therein lies the problem; time,money and a system that workers don'thave faith in. So how do we make thatbetter?

SIMPLES! We pull the whole lottogether, thereby reducing themoney spent on its production,minimising the time spent onits delivery, and finally westandardise and simplify the

system across the UK sector so workers havea common tool they understand and

respect. That is exactly what StepChange in Safety has done – pro-duced a Safe Working Essentialspack which fits into your toppocket and contains all you needfor a dynamic risk assessment,a tool box talk and an observa-tion. Adopting this is a nobrainer, right? WRONG! Or soit seems from some areas ofindustry where apparentlythe idea of a ‘standardised’system doesn't fit with thecompany's goals and objec-tives. Here is a process which

has the potential to deliver onall fronts of efficiency, co-oper-

ation, production and safety.We are repeatedly told “safety isthe number one priority", so whywouldn’t all companies use it?

The workforce wants thischange, government, the regula-

tors and most of industry sup-port the change, Step

Change has developed thetool to deliver thatchange. But it doesn't fitwith your company'sgoals and objectives!Really?

I have been inpost as InterimHead of HSE’sEnergy Divisionsince April thisyear and in thattime I havebeen able tomeet many ofthestakeholders inthe offshoreindustry. I havebeen made to

feel welcome, for which I would like toexpress my thanks. I am impressed bythe energy and enthusiasm I haveencountered in the various groups whoare working hard to improve safety andthe management of major accidenthazards in these challenging times. I amkeen to ensure that Energy Divisioncontinues its engagement with theindustry and plays a full part in thevarious groups working to improvestandards.Many of you will have heard of theHelping Great Britain Work Well Strategy(HGBWW) which aims to engage with allthose who can play a part in furtherimproving Great Britain’s already worldclass health and safety system. It setsout six strategic themes for us all to focuson over the next five years.The themes are:● Acting together: Promoting broaderownership of health and safety in GreatBritain● Tackling ill health: Highlighting andtackling the costs of work-related illhealth● Managing risk well: Simplifying riskmanagement and helping business togrow● Supporting small employers: GivingSMEs simple advice so they know whatthey have to do

● Keeping pace with change:Anticipating and tackling new healthand safety challenges● Sharing our success: Promoting thebenefits of Great Britain’s world-classhealth and safety systemI am sure we would all agree thatpreventing harm to workers and thepublic is integral to business beingsuccessful and achieving sustainedgrowth. The collective challenge for allthose who can play a part in improvingthe system is to ensure that this isknown, understood and becomesembedded firmly in everyone’sthinking and in all our actions.It is important to acknowledge thatthis will not be at the expense of whatis already done well and the areasidentified are those on which we allneed to focus our efforts collectively tomake the greatest improvement. Weneed to see real ownership of thisstrategy – by the many, not just thefew. This is not HSE’s strategy, it is forthe whole of Great Britain andeveryone in it.There were launch events for HGBWWearlier this year with one being held inGlasgow. To help extend the strategyfurther north, Step Change in Safetyare hosting a breakfast event on June29 where Richard Judge, HSE’s ChiefExecutive, will speak about HGBWWand presenters from Step Change willprovide examples of work deliveringon the six strategic themes. I hopemany of you will be able to attend.Over the coming months we will beupdating our sector strategies to alignwith HGBWW and will be consultingwith you through that process.

Chris FlintHSEInterim Head Energy Division

Sometimes we talk about workforce engage-ment in a very conceptual way, making itsound far more complex than it actually is. Forus, it is as simple as speaking, listening, re-sponding to the workforce and giving out thefacts and information you have. This can bedone in various different ways and that’s whyWEST (Workforce Engagement Support Team)has looked to broaden its communicationmethods. So in 2016 you can expect:

1. New Engagement Moments – just a simpleexample of good practice workforceengagement

2. G18 led Webinar Safety Meetings – weheld the first one with the Samaritans onEmotional Health in early May

3. A regular update from your friendly co-chairs in the Tea Shack News

4. Continue the Workforce EngagementLunch & Learns – come and hear how othercompanies are doing it

The other key message is that we are lookingto be much more aligned with G18 (ElectedSafety Reps who sit on the Step ChangeLeadership Team), the wider offshoreworkforce and all the other Step Changeworkgroups. We don’t need to create anythingnew, just work better with the other teams toeffectively engage in the great work they arealready doing.

Please check our 2016 events on the StepChange web page and our social media updates.

Cheers, Vic & Bob

• Printer in the locker room(which doubled as the permitcontrol facility) had beenbroken for approximately 4months

• OIM was not aware of theissue as he uses an alternativeprinter

Does this seem trivial? What could be the consequences?

H&S litigation lawyerMadeleine Abas

MDs play their partMore than forty senior leaders from oil andgas companies recently attended a work-shop to help them understand their respon-sibilities in managing Major Accident Haz-ards.

They participated in a number of exer-cises including creating a generic ‘Bow Tie’diagram, which aimed to help them clearlyidentify the barriers that are put in place toprevent a Major Accident occurring. Theywere then asked to consider the importancethey place on keeping these barriers fullyfunctional in a time of low oil price. Foodfor thought…

Pete Jones, MD at TAQA Bratani, attendedthe workshop. He said: “The excellentspeakers balanced industry, company andexternal industry perspectives on Major Ac-cident Hazards.

“I took an action to promote and sustainthe visibility of the generic Bow Tie whichhelps show the health of every safety criticalbarrier, supporting our focus on processsafety at TAQA.

“The workshop was great at highlightinghow every person plays a part in managingand maintaining process safety. The Bow

Tie representation shows each of us wherewe fit, a healthy reminder as we workthrough our day-to-day tasks.”

Guest speakers at the workshop includedProfessor Geoff Maitland, author of a reportcommissioned by the UK government afterthe Deep Water Horizon tragedy, who pre-sented on the importance of learning frompast events and how process safety must beembedded within the culture of an organi-sation and not just an ‘add-on’.

David Hainsworth, Field Ops Manager forTotal UK presented on how Total respondedto the Elgin G4 incident and what it felt liketo have the world media at your door.

Madeleine Abas, a health and safety litiga-tion lawyer, had the delegates scribbling intheir notepads when she presented on thenew guidelines for sentencing health andsafety breaches in England and Wales. Sheinformed the audience that these stricterrules and harsher fines are likely to be fol-lowed in Scotland.

These presentations and other informa-tion on understanding Major Accident Haz-ards are available on www.stepchangein-safety.net/MAH

Simon Burrows has worked atMaersk Training since 2011,firstly as an Offshore SurvivalSafety Instructor for BOSIET andMIST and for the last two yearshe has been in the HSEQDepartment.

Born in Kent, he previouslyworked in outdoor education withkids and adults. One of these jobswas as a tutor with the FairbridgeProgramme, part of the Prince’sTrust, working with 13–25 yearold youngsters who aredisadvantaged, unemployed orchildren who had dropped out ofschool. Simon took them onkayak experiences, did creativearts with them, personaldevelopment, CV writing andbuilding their confidence. Hedescribes this as ‘the hardest yearof my life’.

Simon met his wife of threeyears Kirsteen in Glasgow andthey have a baby daughterAnnabel who is 11 months old.Kirsteen describes Simon as‘always on hand – nothing is evera hardship and he would doanything for anyone’.

Simon got involved in StepChange in Safety because of itsinnovative concepts and thedown-to-earth, layman’s termsused in publications andseminars – Piper25 being thefirst event he attended.

He now routinely uses StepChange material, including theJoined-up Thinking videos forstaff training.

What is your favourite film?It would be Gladiator or the Fastand the Furious.

Where in the world would you liketo live?I’ve never been before but I wouldpick Australia, Melbourne inparticular.

Where has been your favouriteholiday?It would definitely be Tavira inPortugal, it’s such a lovely placewith great food and great weatherand I tend to go there most years.

What are your hobbies?I enjoy going to the gym. I actuallydid a 1/2 Iron Man back in August2014 which involved 1.9k swim, 90kbike run followed by a marathon. Ialso enjoy walking the dog, Rosiethe Labrador.

What kind of books do you like?I am currently really into crime /thriller / vigilante type books.

A taster of an Engagement Moment

These ‘Moments’ are short presentations with the aim to elicit conversations and ideasfrom the audience. Safety Moment and Engagement Moments are available to downloadfree of charge from the Step Change website: https://www.stepchangeinsafety.net/safer-conversations/safety-alerts

Issue 10 | July 20164 July 2016 | Issue 10 www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn 5

• Printer in the locker room(which doubled as the permitcontrol facility) had beenbroken for approximately 4months

• OIM was not aware of theissue as he uses an alternativeprinter

DISCUSS

Does this seem trivial? What could be the consequences?

The Regulator’s View

Simplification– SIMPLES!

Jake Molloy,RMT

Union Opinion

Change must have nobearing on safe operations

An early reflection from HSE’s Interim Headof Energy Division and promotion of the“Helping Great Britain Work Well” Strategy

Playing My Part – Simon Burrows

Go WESTVicky Lamont, Offshore Safety Discipline Lead at Shell, and BobEgan, Head of Workforce Engagement at the HSE, and both co-chairs of WEST (Workforce Engagement Support Team) outlinetheir commitment in 2016

Deirdre Michie,Chief Executive,Oil & Gas UK

Industry Insights

The business climate continues tochallenge us and that is whycompanies are working hard toturn our situation around.

We have to change to getthrough this difficult downturn.We have to be more competitive,more co-operative and more effi-cient. We are spending morethan we are earning in the NorthSea and no business in any sectorcould survive that.

Companies are finding ways ofworking more effectively. Exam-

ples include taking new ap-proaches to organising marine lo-gistics which involves more inputfrom employees and which hashelped bring down costs.

Change must have no bearingon safe operations despite ourneed to work smarter. In fact, weare hearing case studies of moreefficient working in safety.

One operator – with safety andwellbeing of the workforce cen-tral to its core values and culture– set out to reduce productivetime lost through the volume ofinductions for personnel unfamil-iar with their North Sea assets –or ‘green hats’.

After analysing its process, thecompany discovered that the

planning behind inductionscould be tightened up and runmore efficiently. It calculated thatover 57,000 hours had been lostin 2014 through Non-ProductiveTime (NPT).

Changes made improved safetyto the platform, reduced NPT as-sociated with ‘green hats’ by 11%and saved approximately£500,000.

Those are the kind of changesneeded to help us get throughthis downturn. And, with billionsof barrels still to be recoveredfrom the North Sea, we will getthrough it.

For years now offshore workers have criti-cised the use of observation cards acrossdifferent operations. Claims of the sys-tem being abused as a ‘numbers game’or otherwise used to ‘nail’ workers foralleged performance or behavioural is-sues.

The same sort of criticism has been lev-elled at the use of risk assessments andtool box talks (TBT), with many believingthe risks are assessed in line with thegaffer's opinion – as long as you tick all theboxes and sign the TBT sheet the gaffer ishappy! And if there's an incident, the firstthing the gaffer does is pull out these sheetsand point the finger – “you should haveseen this or stopped the job, you signedthe forms!”

Another big gripe is having to dotraining courses for all these systems.The operators’ system, the contractors’system, your employer’s system – what awaste of time and money.

And therein lies the problem; time,money and a system that workers don'thave faith in. So how do we make thatbetter?

SIMPLES! We pull the whole lottogether, thereby reducing themoney spent on its production,minimising the time spent onits delivery, and finally westandardise and simplify the

system across the UK sector so workers havea common tool they understand and

respect. That is exactly what StepChange in Safety has done – pro-duced a Safe Working Essentialspack which fits into your toppocket and contains all you needfor a dynamic risk assessment,a tool box talk and an observa-tion. Adopting this is a nobrainer, right? WRONG! Or soit seems from some areas ofindustry where apparentlythe idea of a ‘standardised’system doesn't fit with thecompany's goals and objec-tives. Here is a process which

has the potential to deliver onall fronts of efficiency, co-oper-

ation, production and safety.We are repeatedly told “safety isthe number one priority", so whywouldn’t all companies use it?

The workforce wants thischange, government, the regula-

tors and most of industry sup-port the change, Step

Change has developed thetool to deliver thatchange. But it doesn't fitwith your company'sgoals and objectives!Really?

I have been inpost as InterimHead of HSE’sEnergy Divisionsince April thisyear and in thattime I havebeen able tomeet many ofthestakeholders inthe offshoreindustry. I havebeen made to

feel welcome, for which I would like toexpress my thanks. I am impressed bythe energy and enthusiasm I haveencountered in the various groups whoare working hard to improve safety andthe management of major accidenthazards in these challenging times. I amkeen to ensure that Energy Divisioncontinues its engagement with theindustry and plays a full part in thevarious groups working to improvestandards.Many of you will have heard of theHelping Great Britain Work Well Strategy(HGBWW) which aims to engage with allthose who can play a part in furtherimproving Great Britain’s already worldclass health and safety system. It setsout six strategic themes for us all to focuson over the next five years.The themes are:● Acting together: Promoting broaderownership of health and safety in GreatBritain● Tackling ill health: Highlighting andtackling the costs of work-related illhealth● Managing risk well: Simplifying riskmanagement and helping business togrow● Supporting small employers: GivingSMEs simple advice so they know whatthey have to do

● Keeping pace with change:Anticipating and tackling new healthand safety challenges● Sharing our success: Promoting thebenefits of Great Britain’s world-classhealth and safety systemI am sure we would all agree thatpreventing harm to workers and thepublic is integral to business beingsuccessful and achieving sustainedgrowth. The collective challenge for allthose who can play a part in improvingthe system is to ensure that this isknown, understood and becomesembedded firmly in everyone’sthinking and in all our actions.It is important to acknowledge thatthis will not be at the expense of whatis already done well and the areasidentified are those on which we allneed to focus our efforts collectively tomake the greatest improvement. Weneed to see real ownership of thisstrategy – by the many, not just thefew. This is not HSE’s strategy, it is forthe whole of Great Britain andeveryone in it.There were launch events for HGBWWearlier this year with one being held inGlasgow. To help extend the strategyfurther north, Step Change in Safetyare hosting a breakfast event on June29 where Richard Judge, HSE’s ChiefExecutive, will speak about HGBWWand presenters from Step Change willprovide examples of work deliveringon the six strategic themes. I hopemany of you will be able to attend.Over the coming months we will beupdating our sector strategies to alignwith HGBWW and will be consultingwith you through that process.

Chris FlintHSEInterim Head Energy Division

Sometimes we talk about workforce engage-ment in a very conceptual way, making itsound far more complex than it actually is. Forus, it is as simple as speaking, listening, re-sponding to the workforce and giving out thefacts and information you have. This can bedone in various different ways and that’s whyWEST (Workforce Engagement Support Team)has looked to broaden its communicationmethods. So in 2016 you can expect:

1. New Engagement Moments – just a simpleexample of good practice workforceengagement

2. G18 led Webinar Safety Meetings – weheld the first one with the Samaritans onEmotional Health in early May

3. A regular update from your friendly co-chairs in the Tea Shack News

4. Continue the Workforce EngagementLunch & Learns – come and hear how othercompanies are doing it

The other key message is that we are lookingto be much more aligned with G18 (ElectedSafety Reps who sit on the Step ChangeLeadership Team), the wider offshoreworkforce and all the other Step Changeworkgroups. We don’t need to create anythingnew, just work better with the other teams toeffectively engage in the great work they arealready doing.

Please check our 2016 events on the StepChange web page and our social media updates.

Cheers, Vic & Bob

• Printer in the locker room(which doubled as the permitcontrol facility) had beenbroken for approximately 4months

• OIM was not aware of theissue as he uses an alternativeprinter

Does this seem trivial? What could be the consequences?

H&S litigation lawyerMadeleine Abas

MDs play their partMore than forty senior leaders from oil andgas companies recently attended a work-shop to help them understand their respon-sibilities in managing Major Accident Haz-ards.

They participated in a number of exer-cises including creating a generic ‘Bow Tie’diagram, which aimed to help them clearlyidentify the barriers that are put in place toprevent a Major Accident occurring. Theywere then asked to consider the importancethey place on keeping these barriers fullyfunctional in a time of low oil price. Foodfor thought…

Pete Jones, MD at TAQA Bratani, attendedthe workshop. He said: “The excellentspeakers balanced industry, company andexternal industry perspectives on Major Ac-cident Hazards.

“I took an action to promote and sustainthe visibility of the generic Bow Tie whichhelps show the health of every safety criticalbarrier, supporting our focus on processsafety at TAQA.

“The workshop was great at highlightinghow every person plays a part in managingand maintaining process safety. The Bow

Tie representation shows each of us wherewe fit, a healthy reminder as we workthrough our day-to-day tasks.”

Guest speakers at the workshop includedProfessor Geoff Maitland, author of a reportcommissioned by the UK government afterthe Deep Water Horizon tragedy, who pre-sented on the importance of learning frompast events and how process safety must beembedded within the culture of an organi-sation and not just an ‘add-on’.

David Hainsworth, Field Ops Manager forTotal UK presented on how Total respondedto the Elgin G4 incident and what it felt liketo have the world media at your door.

Madeleine Abas, a health and safety litiga-tion lawyer, had the delegates scribbling intheir notepads when she presented on thenew guidelines for sentencing health andsafety breaches in England and Wales. Sheinformed the audience that these stricterrules and harsher fines are likely to be fol-lowed in Scotland.

These presentations and other informa-tion on understanding Major Accident Haz-ards are available on www.stepchangein-safety.net/MAH

Simon Burrows has worked atMaersk Training since 2011,firstly as an Offshore SurvivalSafety Instructor for BOSIET andMIST and for the last two yearshe has been in the HSEQDepartment.

Born in Kent, he previouslyworked in outdoor education withkids and adults. One of these jobswas as a tutor with the FairbridgeProgramme, part of the Prince’sTrust, working with 13–25 yearold youngsters who aredisadvantaged, unemployed orchildren who had dropped out ofschool. Simon took them onkayak experiences, did creativearts with them, personaldevelopment, CV writing andbuilding their confidence. Hedescribes this as ‘the hardest yearof my life’.

Simon met his wife of threeyears Kirsteen in Glasgow andthey have a baby daughterAnnabel who is 11 months old.Kirsteen describes Simon as‘always on hand – nothing is evera hardship and he would doanything for anyone’.

Simon got involved in StepChange in Safety because of itsinnovative concepts and thedown-to-earth, layman’s termsused in publications andseminars – Piper25 being thefirst event he attended.

He now routinely uses StepChange material, including theJoined-up Thinking videos forstaff training.

What is your favourite film?It would be Gladiator or the Fastand the Furious.

Where in the world would you liketo live?I’ve never been before but I wouldpick Australia, Melbourne inparticular.

Where has been your favouriteholiday?It would definitely be Tavira inPortugal, it’s such a lovely placewith great food and great weatherand I tend to go there most years.

What are your hobbies?I enjoy going to the gym. I actuallydid a 1/2 Iron Man back in August2014 which involved 1.9k swim, 90kbike run followed by a marathon. Ialso enjoy walking the dog, Rosiethe Labrador.

What kind of books do you like?I am currently really into crime /thriller / vigilante type books.

A taster of an Engagement Moment

These ‘Moments’ are short presentations with the aim to elicit conversations and ideasfrom the audience. Safety Moment and Engagement Moments are available to downloadfree of charge from the Step Change website: https://www.stepchangeinsafety.net/safer-conversations/safety-alerts

Issue 10 | July 20166 July 2016 | Issue 10 www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn 7

Don’t learn safety by accident

He’s in the shed

Reconstitution ofthe OffshoreIndustry AdvisoryCommittee – OIAC

Achieving GoalZero... BecauseWe Care – a dayTo gather ourresolve toachieving no harmand no leaks

Super Success for Shell’s10th annual Safety Day

OIAC has been a long standing and well-established tripartite committee where in-dustry, trade unions and regulators metregularly to discuss offshore oil and gashealth and safety matters. With the intro-duction of the Directive on the safety ofoffshore oil and gas operations in 2013, theUK reviewed its mechanisms for allowingoperator and owner to contribute to tri-partite consultation on issues related tothe management and control of major ac-cident hazards.

In 2014, HSE and DECC held a publicconsultation on the proposals to transposethe EU Offshore Directive into UK law.Within the consultation document weasked if an updated OIAC could fulfil theDirective’s requirement for establishingtripartite consultation between regulators,industry and worker representatives. 93%of respondents to the consultation sup-ported the proposal.

In March 2015, OIAC’s members agreedthat OIAC’s Terms of Reference (ToR) andWays of Working (WoW) would have to berevised to reflect the more strategic ap-proach that was to be adopted. A workinggroup was established and they preparedrevised ToRs and WoW, and proposals foridentifying the new committee’s structureand membership.

These proposals were presented andadopted at the October 2015 OIAC meet-ing. Under these changes, OIAC was re-constituted and became the Offshore Ma-jor Accident Hazards Advisory Committee(OMAHAC).

HSE currently chairs OMAHAC and Oil& Gas UK are the vice chair, and the com-mittee will meet twice yearly.

The committee is currently consideringwhat key strategic issues, related to themanagement and control of Major Acci-dent Hazards, it should focus on in itsplan of work.

Further information on OMAHACcan be found via HSE’s web sitehttp://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/index.htm

Shell’s annual Safety Day involves workers taking part in a range of activities

Westhill shedders share stories and experiences over a cuppa

“At the Men’sShed there’s agreat deal ofinteraction andan awful lot ofhelp, so when Iget stuck on aproject,somebody canhelp me out”

Congratulations to

the Beryl Field on its

40th anniversary of

first production

11 June 1976 to 2016

Shell held its annual Safety Dayin April, which marks a decadesince the event was firstlaunched.

The Safety Day involved work-ers taking part in a range of ac-tivities, which were held both on-shore and on offshore platforms.

This year’s event focused onthree areas, ‘Process Safety’, ‘Peo-ple Safety’ and ‘Road Safety’.

The Process Safety had inter-active activities to explain theconcepts of Major Accident Haz-ards and the controls in place toprevent these becoming catas-trophic events.

The People Safety area sawworkers enjoy a mini health fairincluding stands on fatigue, re-silience and second-hand smokeeffects, as well as first aid provi-sions and vital health checksperformed by nurses.

People also had the opportu-nity to have their bikes or theircar tyres checked by mechanics,as well as ‘blind spot awareness’,which was carried out by ahaulage company. Shell alsohosted a technology deploymentbooth which showcased safetyimprovements.

Renata Halim, Shell’s SafetyDay Focal Point, said: “TheSafety Day is our biggest annual

event and involves proactive in-volvement from everyone. Thisyear’s theme was ‘AchievingGoal Zero... Because We Care’.

“The vision of Goal Zero is ‘NoHarm and No Leaks’, which iswhat we want to achieve everyday, in every business. Thisyear’s activities were interactive,but at the same time educationalwhich made it a great success.

“We have come a long waysince our first Safety Day in2007. It marks a day for us togather our resolve to achievingno harm and no leaks, which iswhat we strive for every day inour work.”

HSE’s annual reportcites fewer injuriesThe Health and SafetyExecutive (HSE)released its annualreport on the numbers ofoffshore workplaceinjuries and dangerousoccurrences, includinghydrocarbon releases.There appears to befewer injuries in 2015compared to 2014, andno fatalities.* Thenumber of improvementsnotices handed out bythe HSE to operators inUK waters alsodecreased.The ‘Offshore Statistics& Regulatory ActivityReport 2015’ wasreleased in June and

can be accessed fromthe HSE’s website ordirectly fromhttp://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/statistics/hsr2015.pdf

*The criteria for reportingincidents has changed so it’sdifficult to accuratelycompare year on year.

Travel in comfort andstyle fromAberdeen

We have 70 flights a week taking you from Aberdeento Bristol, Esbjerg, Norwich & Oslo. But we also lookforward to bringing you home again. So, as they say

here in Scotland, haste ye back!

bmiregional.com

Were you a proud member of theTufty Club as a child? Or was theGreen Cross Code man yoursafety guru of choice? Or perhapsyour memory goes back as far asthe early public safety films star-ring a young boy and his slightlyscary cat, Charley, with a pen-chant for playing with matches.

Some of these public safety ini-tiatives of years gone by may havecontributed to the undeservedreputation of health and safety asan unnecessary ‘big brother’,breathing down the neck of any-one who wants to have a bit of‘fun’. We’re just a bunch ofkilljoys, aren’t we? Not exactly.

Absafe is a local charity dedi-cated to saving lives. At its HQ,‘The Safe’, it’s created a funfair tomake learning about safety andrisk assessment an experience toremember.

At ‘The Safe’, anyone from agefour to 104 can cast off their cot-ton wool, subject themselves to

risk and be ‘killed’ in various fic-tional accidents.

By experiencing dangerous situ-ations, visitors learn to make safedecisions and mitigate the risksthey’re exposed to in day-to-daylife.

Dame Judith Hackitt, chair-woman of the Health and SafetyExecutive, said that coping withrisk and danger is crucial to achild’s education.

She added: “Children shouldlearn to handle risk from a youngage as this will lead to youngadults who are well equipped todeal with the realities of theworld around them.”

Health and safety learning is akey part of the curriculum for ex-cellence in schools and is taughtfrom nursery age right through tosecondary level.

Carly Neave, who is a primaryone teacher at Elrick school inAberdeenshire, said: “The abilityto assess and understand riskshould be embedded in behaviourfrom an early age.

“The Curriculum for Excellencestates children should be able to‘assess and manage risk’, but thiscan be a difficult thing to achievein a classroom environment.

“The Safe is a fantastic facilityand is something we could onlypreviously dream about – withreal life scenarios, immersive andengaging lessons and the abilityto measure the learning outcomeswith each visit. We share Absafe’sphilosophy, that it’s not aboutputting up fences, it’s about un-derstanding how to make safechoices.”

Ever feel like you’re getting underthe wife’s feet after a few daysback onshore?

Men’s Sheds is an organisationfor socialising which isn’t the pubor the bookies. The sheds let youcatch up with a group of palswithout involving alcohol or sport– for a change.

Borrowed from Australia, shedsare located across the UK. Volun-teers run each shed and offer‘manly’ activities, including wood-work, metalwork, card games andpool. They also host workshops toteach new skills such as cookingor computing, taught by fellowshedders or volunteers.

It’s a social space for anyonewith time on their hands,whether you are missing the ban-ter with the guys offshore or justwant to put the world to rightsover a good cuppa.

Brian, a Westhill, Aberdeen-shire, shedder told us: “My wifewas fed up of wood shavings all

over the house and shooed medown to the Men’s Shed. I can getthe benefit of the tools and facil-ities here but also the knowledgefrom some of the guys that knowfar more about woodwork andtools than I do.”

The shedders, as the men areknown, have recently been sup-plying wooden playground equip-ment to local schools. They reuseand recycle materials and oftenthe tools have been rehomed andrepaired. So the next time yourlawnmower suddenly stops work-ing, you could bring it along to ashed and get the guys to help youfix it.

“I’ve always been used to work-ing in a large group of men. At

the Men’s Shed there’s a greatdeal of interaction and an awfullot of help, so when I’m stuck ona project, somebody can help meout,” said Ian Wallace from theWesthill Men’s Shed.

There are 13 groups across Ab-erdeenshire opening sheds, fromPeterhead to Portlethen. It’s a per-fect spot for men of all ages toshare stories and experiences.With many connections to the oiland gas industry, you’ll find muchin common to chat about.

Joining a Men’s Shed is com-pletely free. There are no criteria:just walk in.

Visit www.menssheds.org.uk to findyour local shed.

If you’re missing the banter with the guys offshore, getyourself off to a Men’s Shed – joining is completely free

Volunteers run each shed and offer ‘manly’ activities, includingwoodwork, metalwork, card games and pool

At ‘The Safe’, anyone from age four to 104 can cast off their cotton wool

Issue 10 | July 20166 July 2016 | Issue 10 www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn 7

Don’t learn safety by accident

He’s in the shed

Reconstitution ofthe OffshoreIndustry AdvisoryCommittee – OIAC

Achieving GoalZero... BecauseWe Care – a dayTo gather ourresolve toachieving no harmand no leaks

Super Success for Shell’s10th annual Safety Day

OIAC has been a long standing and well-established tripartite committee where in-dustry, trade unions and regulators metregularly to discuss offshore oil and gashealth and safety matters. With the intro-duction of the Directive on the safety ofoffshore oil and gas operations in 2013, theUK reviewed its mechanisms for allowingoperator and owner to contribute to tri-partite consultation on issues related tothe management and control of major ac-cident hazards.

In 2014, HSE and DECC held a publicconsultation on the proposals to transposethe EU Offshore Directive into UK law.Within the consultation document weasked if an updated OIAC could fulfil theDirective’s requirement for establishingtripartite consultation between regulators,industry and worker representatives. 93%of respondents to the consultation sup-ported the proposal.

In March 2015, OIAC’s members agreedthat OIAC’s Terms of Reference (ToR) andWays of Working (WoW) would have to berevised to reflect the more strategic ap-proach that was to be adopted. A workinggroup was established and they preparedrevised ToRs and WoW, and proposals foridentifying the new committee’s structureand membership.

These proposals were presented andadopted at the October 2015 OIAC meet-ing. Under these changes, OIAC was re-constituted and became the Offshore Ma-jor Accident Hazards Advisory Committee(OMAHAC).

HSE currently chairs OMAHAC and Oil& Gas UK are the vice chair, and the com-mittee will meet twice yearly.

The committee is currently consideringwhat key strategic issues, related to themanagement and control of Major Acci-dent Hazards, it should focus on in itsplan of work.

Further information on OMAHACcan be found via HSE’s web sitehttp://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/index.htm

Shell’s annual Safety Day involves workers taking part in a range of activities

Westhill shedders share stories and experiences over a cuppa

“At the Men’sShed there’s agreat deal ofinteraction andan awful lot ofhelp, so when Iget stuck on aproject,somebody canhelp me out”

Congratulations to

the Beryl Field on its

40th anniversary of

first production

11 June 1976 to 2016

Shell held its annual Safety Dayin April, which marks a decadesince the event was firstlaunched.

The Safety Day involved work-ers taking part in a range of ac-tivities, which were held both on-shore and on offshore platforms.

This year’s event focused onthree areas, ‘Process Safety’, ‘Peo-ple Safety’ and ‘Road Safety’.

The Process Safety had inter-active activities to explain theconcepts of Major Accident Haz-ards and the controls in place toprevent these becoming catas-trophic events.

The People Safety area sawworkers enjoy a mini health fairincluding stands on fatigue, re-silience and second-hand smokeeffects, as well as first aid provi-sions and vital health checksperformed by nurses.

People also had the opportu-nity to have their bikes or theircar tyres checked by mechanics,as well as ‘blind spot awareness’,which was carried out by ahaulage company. Shell alsohosted a technology deploymentbooth which showcased safetyimprovements.

Renata Halim, Shell’s SafetyDay Focal Point, said: “TheSafety Day is our biggest annual

event and involves proactive in-volvement from everyone. Thisyear’s theme was ‘AchievingGoal Zero... Because We Care’.

“The vision of Goal Zero is ‘NoHarm and No Leaks’, which iswhat we want to achieve everyday, in every business. Thisyear’s activities were interactive,but at the same time educationalwhich made it a great success.

“We have come a long waysince our first Safety Day in2007. It marks a day for us togather our resolve to achievingno harm and no leaks, which iswhat we strive for every day inour work.”

HSE’s annual reportcites fewer injuriesThe Health and SafetyExecutive (HSE)released its annualreport on the numbers ofoffshore workplaceinjuries and dangerousoccurrences, includinghydrocarbon releases.There appears to befewer injuries in 2015compared to 2014, andno fatalities.* Thenumber of improvementsnotices handed out bythe HSE to operators inUK waters alsodecreased.The ‘Offshore Statistics& Regulatory ActivityReport 2015’ wasreleased in June and

can be accessed fromthe HSE’s website ordirectly fromhttp://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/statistics/hsr2015.pdf

*The criteria for reportingincidents has changed so it’sdifficult to accuratelycompare year on year.

Travel in comfort andstyle fromAberdeen

We have 70 flights a week taking you from Aberdeento Bristol, Esbjerg, Norwich & Oslo. But we also lookforward to bringing you home again. So, as they say

here in Scotland, haste ye back!

bmiregional.com

Were you a proud member of theTufty Club as a child? Or was theGreen Cross Code man yoursafety guru of choice? Or perhapsyour memory goes back as far asthe early public safety films star-ring a young boy and his slightlyscary cat, Charley, with a pen-chant for playing with matches.

Some of these public safety ini-tiatives of years gone by may havecontributed to the undeservedreputation of health and safety asan unnecessary ‘big brother’,breathing down the neck of any-one who wants to have a bit of‘fun’. We’re just a bunch ofkilljoys, aren’t we? Not exactly.

Absafe is a local charity dedi-cated to saving lives. At its HQ,‘The Safe’, it’s created a funfair tomake learning about safety andrisk assessment an experience toremember.

At ‘The Safe’, anyone from agefour to 104 can cast off their cot-ton wool, subject themselves to

risk and be ‘killed’ in various fic-tional accidents.

By experiencing dangerous situ-ations, visitors learn to make safedecisions and mitigate the risksthey’re exposed to in day-to-daylife.

Dame Judith Hackitt, chair-woman of the Health and SafetyExecutive, said that coping withrisk and danger is crucial to achild’s education.

She added: “Children shouldlearn to handle risk from a youngage as this will lead to youngadults who are well equipped todeal with the realities of theworld around them.”

Health and safety learning is akey part of the curriculum for ex-cellence in schools and is taughtfrom nursery age right through tosecondary level.

Carly Neave, who is a primaryone teacher at Elrick school inAberdeenshire, said: “The abilityto assess and understand riskshould be embedded in behaviourfrom an early age.

“The Curriculum for Excellencestates children should be able to‘assess and manage risk’, but thiscan be a difficult thing to achievein a classroom environment.

“The Safe is a fantastic facilityand is something we could onlypreviously dream about – withreal life scenarios, immersive andengaging lessons and the abilityto measure the learning outcomeswith each visit. We share Absafe’sphilosophy, that it’s not aboutputting up fences, it’s about un-derstanding how to make safechoices.”

Ever feel like you’re getting underthe wife’s feet after a few daysback onshore?

Men’s Sheds is an organisationfor socialising which isn’t the pubor the bookies. The sheds let youcatch up with a group of palswithout involving alcohol or sport– for a change.

Borrowed from Australia, shedsare located across the UK. Volun-teers run each shed and offer‘manly’ activities, including wood-work, metalwork, card games andpool. They also host workshops toteach new skills such as cookingor computing, taught by fellowshedders or volunteers.

It’s a social space for anyonewith time on their hands,whether you are missing the ban-ter with the guys offshore or justwant to put the world to rightsover a good cuppa.

Brian, a Westhill, Aberdeen-shire, shedder told us: “My wifewas fed up of wood shavings all

over the house and shooed medown to the Men’s Shed. I can getthe benefit of the tools and facil-ities here but also the knowledgefrom some of the guys that knowfar more about woodwork andtools than I do.”

The shedders, as the men areknown, have recently been sup-plying wooden playground equip-ment to local schools. They reuseand recycle materials and oftenthe tools have been rehomed andrepaired. So the next time yourlawnmower suddenly stops work-ing, you could bring it along to ashed and get the guys to help youfix it.

“I’ve always been used to work-ing in a large group of men. At

the Men’s Shed there’s a greatdeal of interaction and an awfullot of help, so when I’m stuck ona project, somebody can help meout,” said Ian Wallace from theWesthill Men’s Shed.

There are 13 groups across Ab-erdeenshire opening sheds, fromPeterhead to Portlethen. It’s a per-fect spot for men of all ages toshare stories and experiences.With many connections to the oiland gas industry, you’ll find muchin common to chat about.

Joining a Men’s Shed is com-pletely free. There are no criteria:just walk in.

Visit www.menssheds.org.uk to findyour local shed.

If you’re missing the banter with the guys offshore, getyourself off to a Men’s Shed – joining is completely free

Volunteers run each shed and offer ‘manly’ activities, includingwoodwork, metalwork, card games and pool

At ‘The Safe’, anyone from age four to 104 can cast off their cotton wool

8 July 2016 | Issue 10 www.stepchangeinsafety.net/tsn

working on and offshore regarding helicoptertransport. It is important the industry takes

the necessary time to understand andaddress the concerns of the work-

force.A petition with 27,000 signa-

tures shows people want to seethe back of 225s but there is astrong case to maintain a mixedfleet to ensure there is the neces-

sary resilience. However, this can-not be at the expense of safety.

Step Change in Safety will continue toencourage openness and transparency withall stakeholders and support workforce en-gagement throughout.

Tea Shack News wants to hear your opinions on safety-related issues at yourworkplace. Send your comments and letters to editor@teashacknews.com

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The Simplification Safe Working Essen-tials Tool is nearing phase two of its in-dustry roll out. So far the SimplificationSteering Group has gathered valuablefeedback from six pilot sites operated byShell, Nexen, BP, Centrica, Wood Groupand EnQuest.Amendments have been made to the firstdraft Simplification tool, guidance andfrequently asked questions document toenable the industry to better understandand use the Safe Working Essentials Tool.Phase two will also see a further 18 sitesusing the amended tool, spreading theword and feeding back comments so thatany further improvements can be re-solved prior to the final roll out in early2017.

If your company would like toparticipate in phase two contactinfo@stepchangeinsafety.net

It’s Simpleisn’t it?

CelebratingOffshore SafetyImagine the summer of 1977.

ABBA’s on the radio andyou’re wearing flares sowide, a sudden gust ofwind could see you liftingoff like a helicopter. You’rejust about to splash yourhard earned cash on abrand new Mark IV FordCortina, 2.3S. Magic.

You’ll spend your next timeback onshore pouring over yourHaynes manual, tinkering with the V6 en-gine, proudly polishing the paintwork until itgleams. You love any opportunity to takeyour car out for a spin.

Eventually you soldthe car. But what hap-pened to it? As timeprogressed, it’s likelyparts needed to bereplaced; the MarkIV had a terriblereputation forrust. What wascutting edgetechnology in1977 will lookredundant in2016. In 1977, your car

THE BIGBANG

THEORY

Asset Integrity

Helicopter SafetySo what is the situation regarding flights inSuper Puma aircraft now?

Following the publication of thepreliminary report from the Acci-dent Investigation Board Norway(AIBN) the 225 and 332L2 ver-sions of the Super Puma familyhave been prohibited fromflight by the European AviationSafety Agency (EASA), which ex-tends to search and rescue withinNorway and the UK through theirrespective aviation authorities.

A dossier was delivered to Oil and Gas UKand Step Change in Safety in May, highlight-ing the concerns and needs of the individuals

was guzzling leaded petroland, boy, did every passingpedestrian know it, butwith the right care, invest-ment and upgrades, yourCortina could still be safelyon the road today.Asset Integrity Manage-

ment is about keeping as-sets, like your Cortina, safely

functioning throughout theyears. Offshore, it is about ensuring

the installation is able to function effectivelyand efficiently, and that it’s able to do sowhile protecting safety, health and the envi-ronment. Asset Integrity Management pri-marily focuses on maintaining Safety and En-vironmental Critical Elements (SECEs) andmanaging the overall condition of the asset.

Have you booked your place for the Off-shore Safety Awards?

As the Offshore Safety Awards near weare ramping up and preparing for theceremony of the century, which champi-ons the men, women and companies go-ing the extra mile for health and safetyin the oil and gas industry.

For just £25 a head you and your col-leagues can attend this exciting eventwhich will let you vote for the award cat-egory winners, and enjoy breakfast, teasand coffees and a buffet lunch.

There are more than 400 spaces at thetheatre-style event for you and yourcompany colleagues to seal the fate ofour award finalists. The day is set to be aroaring success. Award finalists will beannounced in July before the ceremony,which takes place at the Aberdeen Exhi-bition and Conference Centre onWednesday, 17th August, from 8am to1.30pm.

This year’s award categories for theOffshore Safety Awards are:■ Safety Leadership – for an inspira-tional leader who motivates and engagestheir team to work safely.■ Safety Representative of the Year – foran enthusiastic and committed safetyrep who is driving the safety agenda attheir worksite.

■ Innovation in Safety – for a companywhich has put in place a clever processor technique to improve safety eitheracross an organisation or at an individ-ual worksite.■ Workforce Engagement – for an indi-vidual or team which has actively em-braced engagement with its workers onsafety matters, showing how a commit-ment to worker involvement in safetyhas contributed to an improvement insafety performance.■ Occupational Health – for an individ-ual/team or company which has takensteps to implement health policies/prac-tices of proven effectiveness to improvethe health of its workforce. This could beby implementing an existing policy par-ticularly effectively, or by introducingnew practices■ Sharing and Learning – for an individ-ual/team or company that can demon-strate a learning and sharing culture ei-ther within their organisation, or whohas made a significant contribution tohealth and safety through active partici-pation in, or engagement with, Oil & GasUK or Step Change in Safety.

To book your space at the eventvisit the Offshore Safety Awardswebsite