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.”