OIL & GAS : OFFSHORE CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION
“ The OCA has also sought to improve its understanding of workforce health priorities . Its Safety Work Group identified there was a need to share more effectively non-sensitive occupational health data across companies for transient personnel .”
SIMPLIFICATION IN SAFETY
The OCA has a long history of pan industry involvement with industry safety initiatives and works particularly closely with the pan-industry organisation Step Change in Safety . The Safety Working Group is engaged with their Safety Simplification initiative . This group has developed an industry standard for Toolbox Talks , Dynamic Risk Assessment and Behavioural Safety Observation Card , known as the Safe Working Essentials booklet .
Lead by Erik-Jan Bijvank , Executive Vice President UK & Africa at Stork Technical Services , the OCA aims to ensure that practical Health and Safety solutions to risks associated with everyday activities are available to the whole contractor community , which in turn will lead to an improvement in the health and safety of routine ‘ hands on ’ worksite activities .
The project started by developing a standard means of identifying key areas that require review . Drawing on anonymised information from OCA members , data on typical potential incident types or clusters are being compiled with the aim of defined reviewing criteria for incident trending , inspections , visits and audits .
The task involves reaching agreement on the key areas to be addressed , selecting possible improvement methods , and subsequently trailing possible solutions . A vital part of the process is identifying a catalogue of lessons learned on successful tools and techniques and ensuring that best practice is widely disseminated across the supply chain .
Critical to the success of the project is the development of a standard means of identifying areas to be addressed from incidents and incident trending , inspection , visit , audit or other sources of information .
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH INITIATIVES
The OCA has also sought to improve its understanding of workforce health priorities . Its Safety Work Group identified there was a need to share more effectively non-sensitive occupational health data across companies for transient personnel .
The group is currently determining if there is benefit to sharing non-sensitive occupational health data across companies and whether it is actually possible to do so within the parameters of medical confidentiality and data protection .
Representatives from most OCA member companies sit on the Energy Institute Health Technical Committee and play an active role in Oil & Gas UK who have an existing Occupational Health & Hygiene Network .
The OCA continues to play a critical role on the UKCS in representing its members not least in pan industry safety initiatives . Although the industry faces some significant challenges , none of the OCA ’ s members are willing to make any compromises in delivering the safest possible offshore working environment .
For more information , go to : www . ocainternet . com
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HSE INTERNATIONAL