North Sea Offshore Authorities Forum (NSOAF) Multi-national Audit Project 'Supervision'

Supervision is a critical management function within companies and a key element in effective risk control and managementof health and safety. Historical accident data has shown that poor or inadequate supervision was considered to be a significant factor in accident causation both for individual and major hazard risk. The NSOAF plenary meeting agreed in 2007 to mandate a project team to conduct a theme audit on this subject.

The NSOAF multi-national audit project 'Supervision' was carried out during the period 2008 to early 2009 in Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom by national audit teams. Thirteen offshore production installations were visited, involving eight operators. After the completion of the offshore visits, interviews with onshore senior line management were conducted. The final audit report reflects the findings from the offshore visits and meetings with onshore senior managers.

HSE is pleased to share the audit report findings with the offshore industry in the hope that they will consider taking the following actions:

• discuss the report main findings and audit follow-up initiatives throughout their organisations;
• facilitate lateral learning between their own organisation/business and others so that supervision best practice is widely shared;
• ensure adequate management and supervisory knowledge of safety barriers in their organisations in order to minimise the risk of serious occupational and major hazard accidents;
• for the North Sea area trade associations to contribute in the industry wide follow-up initiatives such as facilitating the development of a 'toolkit for worksite visits' and the promulgation of audit findings at offshore workforce events and through their various publications and web sites.

There will be an opportunity for both the operators and the trade associations to demonstrate, during the second NSOAF Conference on 27 April 2010 in Aberdeen, what has been done with the audit key challenges (see chapter 5 - Audit conclusions), to improve supervision in the E&P industry.