Center for Offshore Safety Sponsors Health, Safety and Environment Program At 2022 Offshore Technology Conference

The Center for Offshore Safety (COS) sponsored sessions on health, safety and the environment at the 2022 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston involving technical panels, speakers and presentations.

Three sessions addressed the core COS mission of promoting safety and protecting the environment as well the importance of implementing safety management systems in the US offshore natural gas and oil industry.

Valaris and QNE presented on “Managing the Knowledge Transition,” addressing the challenges the industry faces developing a new generation of workers as an aging workforce with decades of experience leaves the industry. To manage knowledge transfer, the speakers discussed how industry must be adaptable, flexible and provide process standardization with continuous learning and improvement to a new generation of industry workers.

During a technical panel, “Advancements in Safety Leadership,” the 2021 COS Safety Leadership Award nominees and winners -- Shell, Baker Hughes, Oxy, Hess, Halliburton and Valaris -- shared their companies’ contributions to improve safety management and performance through leadership, communication and teamwork, including the role of the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Safety and Environmental Management System (SEMS).

A final regulators session, “Perspectives on Safety, Safety Management, and Policy Updates from Regulatory Senior Leadership,” had leadership from the US Coast Guard and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement present recent safety alerts and incident statistics as well as a discussion of the importance of industry knowledge sharing.

Overall, session attendees showed an interest in knowledge transfer, technology and digitization as well as the evolution of generational training and learning.

OTC draws energy professionals from around the world to exchange ideas and opinions to advance scientific and technical knowledge for offshore resources and environmental matters. This year OTC attracted more than 24,000 attendees, making it once again one of the largest 200 trade shows held annually in the United States. COS has sponsored eight health, safety and environment programs at OTC since first becoming a sponsoring organization in 2013.