Offshore staff

LONDON, UK --The four main North Sea national oil and gas associations have agreed to harmonize offshore training standards.

The agreement between Oil & Gas UK, Norway's OLF, Denmark's NSOC-D, and Nogepa of The Netherlands, comes into effect on Nov. 1. The aim is to limit unnecessary and time-consuming duplication of training across these countries' four sectors, thereby easing free movement of offshore personnel.

According to Oil & Gas UK chief executive Malcolm Webb, all four national bodies will recognize each other's safety training programs. One benefit, he pointed out will be that an offshore employee travelling from the UK to an assignment in Norway will now have to do less than four hours additional training, compared with the current two days.

The extra tuition for staff heading in this direction will include courses on first aid, use of the Norwegian survival suit, and training on escape chutes, which are more common on Norwegian installations.

10/09/2007