ABSTRACT
A major concern of the UK Offshore Industry in the wake of the Piper Alpha disaster has been the subject of the Management of Safety. The Cullen report (Ref. 1) has placed great emphasis on the need for the owners of offshore installations to be able to demonstrate that the facilities for which they are responsible are managed safely. The lessons to be learned from the accident to Piper Alpha are drawn out in various parts of the Cullen report, but in particular in Chapter 21 of the report, and notably in Section 21.56. Cullen requires that a demonstration of an adequate Safety Management System should form a leading part of the Safety Case for an offshore installation and should:
set out the safety objectives describe the system by which these objectives are to be achieved define the performance standards which are to be met state the means by which adherence to these standards is to be monitored
Cullen goes on to list some of the areas of operation which will need to be addressed if safety is to be assessed including organisational structure, management personnel standards, training, procedures for all important operations, monitoring and auditing, accident and incident reporting and investigation to name but a few. A clear duty is placed upon management not only to ensure that proper systems and procedures are in place, but in fact that they are being used on a day-to-day basis.
