Baker Hughes, Shell Offshore win 2020 COS Safety Leadership Awards

HOUSTON – The Center for Offshore Safety (COS) announced the winners of the 2020 Safety Leadership Awards, recognizing companies for their outstanding leadership in developing safety management and performance practices and projects that advance the offshore industry’s culture of safety.

“This year’s winners have distinguished themselves as leaders in strengthening our shared value to prioritize safety in the offshore industry,” COS Director Russell Holmes said. “Since the establishment of COS in 2011, our members have expanded programs and commitments for sharing information and improving the collective knowledge of the industry. The COS Safety Awards highlight these accomplishments and support the industry’s commitment to continuously improve safety practices to reach our shared goal of zero incidents.”

The COS Governing Board reviews all nominations and selects finalists for the operator and contractor categories. The annual COS Forum showcases finalists each fall to emphasize the significant contributions of its members’ successful new projects and programs. Winners are then determined by vote during the Forum by the Board and attendees.

The 2020 award winners have been important stakeholders on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for decades, and their contributions are integral to the advancement of offshore safety

The two 2020 Safety Leadership Awards winners are:

• Baker Hughes: Operationalizing Human Performance – Advancing Safety in the Shadow of Success. Human Performance concepts are based on the belief that humans inevitably make mistakes and that we must identify potential error traps to prevent incidents from happening. The Baker Hughes offshore team within its Oilfield Services product company in North America achieved 22 percent reduction in incident severity potential and 37 percent reduction in incidents by leveraging human performance concepts, including hosting 50 “Learning Teams” since 2019.
• Shell Offshore, Inc.: A Holistic Approach to Managing Lifeboat Safety. In the Gulf of Mexico OCS, lifeboat launching and recovery on offshore facilities is a regulatory expectation enforced by the United States Coast Guard. Historically, to be compliant protocol consisted of loading the lifeboat with limited personnel, lowering and releasing it into the water, running the boat, and recovery of the lifeboat. After re-assessing safety risks with performing these type of manned launches, Shell Offshore Inc. began advocating that changes to these procedures were prudent.