Monthly Reflections August 2025
by Steve Norton, IOGP Health, Safety, Security & Wells Director
Monthly Reflections August 2025
Dear Colleagues,
On 4th September I will be joining the Safety Panel Session at SPE Offshore Europe in Aberdeen. The theme of the Panel is Learning is Vital, which is one of the 5 IOGP Human Performance Principles. The Panel Session will be moderated by Craig Wiggins (CEO, Step Change in Safety) and my fellow panellists are Gillian Urquhart (Regional HSE and Carbon Manager, bp), Steve Rae (Director, Fortitude Action Beyond Compliance & Piper Alpha Survivor) and Katie Morton (Human Performance and Behavioural Science Lead, SLB).
Offshore Europe in 2025 recognises over 50 years of operations in the North Sea. During that time the industry has made significant progress in safety. Learning, which is often driven by the painful lessons of tragic incidents, has been central to this progress. So, whilst we recognise we have come a long way in safety we are not yet meeting our ambition to eliminate fatalities, permanent impairments and catastrophic events.
Being deliberate in how we learn from incidents is critical to continuous improvement and preventing repeat incidents. But it doesn’t stop there; we should also learn proactively from everyday work whether things go right or wrong. The 5 IOGP Principles are the foundation of how we approach Human Performance in our industry. Following the Principles creates the conditions where people can succeed and are enabled to do their best work.
I look forward to the Panel Session at Offshore Europe and the opportunity to discuss the role of learning in shaping safety performance and whether learning is translating into sustainable improvement. I hope to see some of you there.
Kind regards,
Steve
