Offshore oil and gas safety needs immediate action

The Mari­time Uni­on says the Gov­ern­ment needs to boost its mon­it­or­ing and enforce­ment of safety reg­u­la­tions for the off­shore oil and gas industry.

A Gov­ern­ment review released last week found the Depart­ment of Labour inspect­or­ate respons­ible for the sec­tor is sig­ni­fic­antly under-resourced.

One inspect­or cov­ers off­shore and onshore oil explor­a­tion for the entire coun­try, a much lower level of cov­er­age than in coun­tries such as Aus­tralia, the UK and Nor­way.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Joe Fleet­wood says it is a high risk industry, which is a major part of the New Zea­l­and eco­nomy and will become a big­ger part.

The Uni­on was heav­ily involved in the off­shore oil and gas sec­tor, which had great poten­tial, but only if the highest stand­ards were in place.

The Mari­time Uni­on would be mak­ing sub­mis­sions in response to the Gov­ern­ment report.

Mr Fleet­wood says the Mari­time Uni­on is send­ing a clear mes­sage to the Gov­ern­ment.

Energy and Resources Min­is­ter Gerry Brown­lee had stated the Gov­ern­ment would like com­pli­ance to be “as effi­cient as pos­sible” but the Mari­time Uni­on wanted com­pli­ance to be “as effect­ive as pos­sible.”

“Effi­ciency in our industry is a code word for sav­ing dol­lars as far as we are con­cerned. We want effect­ive com­pli­ance that works, and if doing it right costs more money, slows things down and is incon­veni­ent to the Gov­ern­ment or any employ­er, then too bad. The cost of get­ting it wrong is just far too high.”

The Mari­time Uni­on has been press­ing for tight­er reg­u­la­tions in the mari­time sec­tor.

“This includes all aspects of safety, all the way from cor­rect use of gang­way nets through to the sea­wor­thi­ness of ves­sels and con­di­tions of crews, and avail­ab­il­ity of response ves­sels for emer­gency situ­ations. This extends through to the off­shore sec­tor.”

The num­ber of deaths and injur­ies in the mari­time and min­ing sec­tor was high. The off­shore oil and gas industry com­bined the risk factors for both indus­tries.

2010 has seen a sub­stan­tial num­ber of deaths and injur­ies on board for­eign ves­sels both in ports and work­ing in and around the New Zea­l­and coast and waters, as well as the recent Pike River dis­aster.

“We are a pro­act­ive Uni­on – we want the reg­u­la­tions and mon­it­or­ing to be at top stand­ard before any incid­ent, not in response to things that go wrong when it is too late.”