On January 3, 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported that while the current administration lifted the ban in October, it hasn’t issued any permits for new deep water oil wells. This delay, reported WSJ, “has hurt both the oil industry, which has seen billions of dollars in projects put on hold, and the Gulf Coast’s economy, which has been hit hard by the slowdown.”

However Mike Arnold, Chief Executive Officer of Proforma Safety International, believes the unwarranted and unecessary pause in drilling and production operations – coupled with the U.S. Government’s further involvement in regulating oil and gas production in the United States — will reinforce the focus on safety.

“Among the oil and gas operators and their contractors,” said Arnold, “we’re seeing safety being moved to the forefront of every operation, and more than ever, placed ahead of both scheduling and profit.  

“The oil industry has progressed over the years to be one of the safest industries operating anywhere in the world,” he continued. “But because of the BP/Transocean incident last year being magnified by the news media and expanded on by the special interest groups in Washington,  our industry is being portrayed as unsafe and in need of a complete overhaul.  

“This is surely not the case,” he concluded. “It’s a stigma we can easily overcome by continuing to enforce existing HSE policies and procedures while improving how management incorporates safety into their plans, operations and daily activities.”

Tags: Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, Moratorium, offshore, workplace safety
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