The actions of “multiple companies and work teams” contributed to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year, a report released by BP has concluded.

A steep rise in the number of major and significant hydrocarbon releases – regarded as potential precursors to a major incident – has sparked the HSE to issue a warning to bosses in the offshore oil and gas industry.

With more than 40 years’ oil and gas production behind them many of the fixed installations in the North Sea have exceeded their original design life, or soon will, so the HSE has launched a new offshore inspection programme to ensure ageing infrastructure does not compromise safety.

The union that represents HSE inspectors is worried that public-sector cost-slashing could undermine the Executive’s ability to regulate health and safety, particularly in the high-hazard industries.

Oil and gas companies operating offshore in Europe could be forced to abide by new and tougher safety laws if moves underway at the European Commission bear fruit.

Global energy giants Shell UK and Amec Group have been fined £150,000 each and ordered to pay costs of £41,500 apiece after a gas-rig worker fell to his death from an installation in the North Sea.

Latest figures from the HSE suggest that the offshore industry has made significant progress on a range of safety issues and is gradually getting better at involving employees in safety matters. George Allison describes how one oil company actively encourages its workforce to stay alert to issues of safety and stop work if they feel this could be jeopardised.

As commercial buildings, production facilities, and offshore structures get ever larger and more complex, the risks involved in their construction and operation become harder to keep track of without smart information management. Simon Olliff sheds light on why electronic permit systems are a popular way of doing so.

A number of individuals has been honoured at the inaugural UK Oil and Gas Industry Safety Awards.

A leading health and safety lawyer in Scotland has undertaken an offshore survival training course so she can offer advice to firms on how to reduce offshore fatalities.

Following concerns raised by workers in the offshore industry about basic safety competence the Step Change in Safety initiative is creating new minimum safety training standards for employees, particularly new starts, working on installations on the UK continental shelf (UKCS).

The UK offshore oil and gas industry is launching new minimum safety competence standards for employees working on installations on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).

Revised guidance designed to improve offshore safety by increasing workforce involvement has been published by the Workforce Involvement Group (WIG) of the Offshore Industry Advisory Committee (OIAC).

British Safety Services (BSS) says it has delivered one of the first-ever NEBOSH qualifications in Health & Safety at Work, (Level 2) in Algeria – and achieved a 100-per-cent pass rate.

Crowcon’s TXgard-IS+ gas detector is fitted with electrochemical sensors, which are said to enable it to detect a wide range of toxic gases and oxygen.