Posted By Colin Calvert
Hi All,
I am considering applying for offshore Health and Safety vacancies and wondered what requirements and 'nice to have's' I should go for to have a chance.
I know about the survival ticket and medical req's from adverts. I have an H&S Diploma and several years hands on experience in the chemical industry.
Any advice, links to job sites etc.. will be gratefully recieved.
Many Thanks,
Colin

Posted By John Allen
I have spent 16 years in the oil industry, mostly onshore based but with a few stints offshore mainly as relief. Process industry knowledge is certainly an advantage and I know many people who have joined from the chemical industry.

Life offshore can be stressful The workforce tends to be self selecting – some people find they don’t like two weeks on – two weeks off or what ever and move onto other things. However some companies are changing onto improved rotas with longer field breaks eg 2 on, 3 off or 2 on, 2 off, 2 on, 4 off. This is important as it’s impossible to get a fortnight’s holiday if you are constantly 2 on 2 off as many workers still are (and are currently fighting for Working Time Rule recognition).

Over the past few years many installations have down manned to the extent that a number no longer have a fulltime safety person on board. You may have to be prepared to take on another discipline as well as safety. Where offshore safety personnel have been retained an important part of the job is emergency response. You may be required to lead the fire team for instance. For this reason many offshore safety people joined from the fire service although this is much less common now. In any event in addition to the standard survival course you will almost certainly have to take an offshore fire team leader’s course which is quite arduous.

Although notionally a 12 hour day this includes meal breaks so it’s not as tiring as it sounds. That said you are “living over the shop” and it is not unknown to be woken in the middle of the night by an alarm or a request for a signature on a permit. Some people never get used to this. Food is plentiful on most installations but generally of better quality on production installations than on drilling rigs. To some extent it depends on how good the chef is. Most platforms have satellite TV and newspapers with every helicopter flight (not every day).

The current offshore workforce is an ageing one. As a result of this and as Mark says, the current high oil price there is certainly demand for personnel. I would suggest contacting the main contracting organisations such as Amec, Wood Group, Aker, KBR (hope that mentions them all – I wouldn’t want to be accused of bias!). However it may well be that the best move is actually an onshore based job involving visits offshore. That way you get the opportunity to gain experience and decide whether you like the offshore lifestyle.

From a personal viewpoint I’ll not be renewing my survival refresher when it expires at the end of this year. If we have new people coming into the industry then so much the better.