Yesterday, Allyson Anderson Book, Senior Advisor to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Director, spoke at the Winds of Change in Offshore Oil and Gas conference in Houston, Texas. The event, co-sponsored by the North American Marine Environment Protection Association and the National Ocean Industries Association, brought together leaders from government, industry and stakeholders for discussions on important changes affecting offshore oil and gas operations.
'It's important that we continue to maintain an open dialogue at events such as this to discuss important issues affecting offshore oil and gas operations,' said Anderson. 'We want our stakeholders and industry to know that we are continuously looking for improvements in safety and environmental protection and that we will continue to leverage new technology and strategic partnerships when possible.'
During the presentation, Anderson emphasized the importance of safety and spoke to the group about BSEE's role in environmental protection, managing risk, oil spill response and encouraging a strong safety culture. She also mentioned efforts to bolster the bureau's capacity for analyzing data gained through incident reporting requirements, near miss reporting, and real time monitoring. In addition, Anderson also outlined for the audience important steps that industry must take to protect the environment and ensure worker safety.
The near miss reporting system, highlighted by Anderson during the presentation, is a tool that is currently being developed by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) for BSEE and will enable offshore workers to anonymously report near misses in a way that protects their identity. BTS will maintain control of the individual confidential reports but will provide important trend analysis and statistical data to BSEE. The system will expand the ability of BSEE and industry to capture essential information about accident precursors and potential hazards associated with offshore operations.
