Title: In Relentless Pursuit of Offshore Safety: A Privileged Perspective
Speaker: Derrick O’Keeffe
Abstract:
Offshore worker occupational safety may be improving, but less frequent, high consequence events and leading indicators – like major gas releases – are proving stubbornly difficult to drive down. Getting the right information is key to understanding the risks and the available controls for effective risk management. Is there an over-focus on bad-outcome events, and insufficient attention paid to “weak signals”? Are opportunities in data analytics being missed?
The concept of “Privileged Perspectives” is introduced; the idea that industry players, stakeholders and governments have access to quantitative and qualitative information in different ways, and can apply this for their specific organizational goals. Perhaps the most powerful use of a regulators’ Privileged Perspective is to influence improved safety outcomes.
Australia became the world’s largest exporter of LNG in 2019 in a technology-led growth. It also has facilities from the 1960s. Against this diverse backdrop, its offshore regulator provides examples of how it has developed and uses its Privileged Perspective, working with industry, to promote risk awareness and control measures. A single event that narrowly avoided a diving fatality led, through a “big data” approach to a global opportunity to reduce risk across countless dynamically positioned vessels. A 500 well study on barrier failures revealed interesting opportunities in consistent, simple reporting and prediction. The way forward? Commitment at the leadership level to greater pooling – at a global level - of Privileged Perspectives derived from safety information, to drive opportunities for safe offshore work.
Speaker Biography:
Derrick O’Keeffe is the Head of Safety and Integrity for NOPSEMA, Australia’s independent offshore regulator. He holds a BSc (Hons.) in Chemical Engineering and an MBA. He has 37 years’ engineering, commercial, management and Director experience in oil and gas in Australia, Iran, UAE, Bangladesh, Africa, USA and the UK. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, life member and past President of the Petroleum Club of Western Australia, where he contributes to short-courses on petroleum. He is a regular witness at Australian government parliamentary senate hearings and inquiries.
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