Government must improve offshore exploration safety

On the eve of the first anniversary of the Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon dis­aster the EPMU and MUNZ say the Key gov­ern­ment must apply les­sons from it and the Pike River tragedy and act without delay to ensure work­ers have a stronger voice in off­shore oil explor­a­tion safety, includ­ing com­pre­hens­ive “safety case” and leg­al liab­il­ity pro­vi­sions [1].

The gov­ern­ment also needs to legis­late for best inter­na­tion­al reg­u­lat­ory stand­ards and prac­tices, enforce them effect­ively by increas­ing the num­ber of inspect­ors and remove leg­al uncer­tain­ties about com­pan­ies’ insur­ance liab­il­ity oblig­a­tions.

“The Pike River and Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon tra­gedies were remind­ers that work­place safety is not nego­ti­able,” says Andrew Little, joint spokes­man for the NZ sec­tion of the Trans Tas­man Oil & Gas Alli­ance (TTOGA) of trade uni­ons.

“New Zea­l­and deserves the strict­est levels of safety, acci­dent pre­ven­tion and response, and a com­pre­hens­ive envir­on­ment­al safe­guards regime in its Exclus­ive Eco­nom­ic Zone (EEZ), and a ded­ic­ated res­cue ves­sel, without com­prom­ise or incon­sist­ency.”

“Too often the free mar­ket cul­ture says ‘increase pro­ductiv­ity and make more profit’ but this deval­ues the work­er­’s voice on health and safety issues which isn’t good enough.”

“It’s also about a sens­ible recog­ni­tion that some indus­tries are inher­ently dan­ger­ous, such as oil, gas and min­ing, and people work­ing in them are entitled to the best pos­sible pro­tec­tions going.”

“New Zea­l­and has only one inspect­or over­see­ing safety in off­shore oil explor­a­tion, which is a grave con­cern after the Pike River and Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon tra­gedies.”

“The gov­ern­ment simply must increase the level of health and safety staff­ing and mon­it­or­ing in the most haz­ard­ous sec­tors such as oil, gas and min­ing.”

“A single Depart­ment of Labour oil well inspect­or mon­it­ors health and safety at sev­en New Zea­l­and install­a­tions and is sup­posed to be guard­ing against dis­asters such as the rig explo­sion that killed 11 work­ers on the Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon in the Gulf of Mex­ico last year.”

“Aus­tralia has one inspect­or for every three install­a­tions, Bri­tain has one for every two and Nor­way has one per install­a­tion. Yet the sole New Zea­l­and inspect­or is respons­ible for sev­en install­a­tions as well as all onshore pet­ro­leum and geo­therm­al activ­it­ies, which beg­gars belief.”

“The Depart­ment of Labour inspect­or­ate needs more inspect­ors and sup­port staff to bring the level here in line with Nor­way where they have one for each install­a­tion.”

[1] The Engin­eer­ing, Print­ing and Man­u­fac­tur­ing Uni­on (EPMU) rep­res­ents work­ers in the oil, gas and min­ing sec­tors and the Mari­time Uni­on of NZ (MUNZ) rep­res­ents work­ers in the mari­time and ship­ping sec­tors. Togeth­er they are the NZ sec­tion of the Trans Tas­man Oil & Gas Alli­ance (TTOGA).