API Blessing for Safety Centre
The board of directors of the American Petroleum Institute has formally endorsed industry steps to create a Centre for Offshore Safety. During its spring meeting. API president and CEO Jack Gerard said the Centre is to promote the highest level of safety for offshore operations, through an effective programme addressing management practices, communication and teamwork, and one that relies on independent, third-party auditing and verification.
These actions follow API's August 2010 testimony and its October 2010 letter to the Presidential Oil Spill Commission regarding the industry's review of five other safety programmes, including the UK's Step Change in Safety, the chemical industry's Responsible Care programme, the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations, the OSHA Voluntary Protection Programme, and the Safety Case Regime for international operators.
The Centre for Offshore Safety will draw on the lessons learned from successful, existing safety programmes, applying the best elements of these to accommodate the challenges of offshore oil and natural gas operations, and will rely on independent auditing and review by third-party certifiers, according to API.
The programme will be run by the separately-funded standards and certification arm of the American Petroleum Institute, which receives regular audits and accreditation by the American National Standards Institute and the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board.
The Centre will be based in Houston and open to all companies that operate in deepwater exploration and production. The focus of the centre will be based on API's Recommended Practice 75, covering safety and environmental management systems, recently incorporated into federal regulations by BOEMRE.
