Monthly Reflections December 2024
by Steve Norton, IOGP Health, Safety, Security & Wells Director
Monthly Reflections December 2024
Dear Colleagues,
Please can I start by offering my very best wishes for a happy, healthy and safe 2025.
As we start the year, I would like to pause and reflect on the progress made by the IOGP Safety Committees in 2024. Achievements of the Wells, Health and Safety Committees have been very well summarised in recent LinkedIn posts by my colleagues. Links to their posts can be found here (Wells Expert Committee and Health and Safety Committees).
The deliverables described in these posts are the result of hundreds of industry professionals working together to share their knowledge and experience. The resulting Recommended Practices and Publications and their adoption is making a positive impact on the lives of so many people working in the oil and gas industry. I specifically say adoption because generating the Publications is a challenging process but the most value comes in the adoption of these practices.
So much of the work done by the IOGP Committees is driven by the insights provided by the safety data submitted by Members. In 2024 IOGP published 14 Data Reports covering Health and Safety performance Indicators, Process Safety, Motor Vehicle and Aviation. The Data Reports are a hugely valuable resource to assess performance, allow benchmarking and decide on focus areas. The 2024 Reports showed the Fatal Accident Rate in 2023 had reduced by 36% compared to 2022 and in December I presented the European data submitted by IOGP Members to EU policymakers at the EU Offshore Authority Group where the data showed zero fatalities in Europe for 2 years in a row.
Whilst these are positive trends, we also know we can never be complacent when it comes to safety. To continue our journey of continuous improvement, the IOGP Safety Directorate focus areas for 2025 are:
- Development and adoption of Safety Recommended Practices.
- Publishing the Member safety data.
- Increasing collaboration with IOGP Partners.
- Co-ordinating activities designed to improve safety culture, including human performance initiatives.
Working together has played a big part in the safety improvement we observe, and it will bring us closer to our ambition to eliminate fatalities. I look forward to 2025 as we continue this journey.
Kind regards,
Steve
