The Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) performs one of the most complex and critical roles within the UK offshore oil and gas industry. The OIM is responsible for the safety and well-being of all persons onboard and within 500m of the installation whilst operating within an isolated and hostile physical environment within the UK Continental Shelf . The persistence of major incidents in the industry highlights the importance of OIM competence in controlling emergencies, consequently the research aims to contribute to new knowledge by identifying the potential barriers that can prevent the effective competence assessment of an OIM in this situation. The research utilised Engestròˆm's Expanded Activity Theory to establish the holistic socio-cultural environment within which the OIM operates during emergency response to establish the key documents relevant to the role and associated competence assessment. The documents were then analysed using a critical hermeneutic approach based on the work of Phillips and Brown (1993) to determine the potential barriers to effective competence assessment of the OIM in controlling emergencies. The research is interdisciplinary and aims to develop new knowledge within the domains of safety engineering and law. The output from the research will assist industry Duty Holders improve the competence assessment of their appointed OIMs and allow safety engineers to consider the probable competence of an OIM at a given point in time. The research has identified 8 potential barriers to the effective competence assessment of OIMs in controlling emergencies. These are associated with the multiple definitions of competence that exist; the predominance of competence assessment by observation; the lack of definitive competence requirements for trainers and assessors; the complexity in UK legislation and the interaction between UK Government departments; concerns associated with goal setting legislation when applied to competence assessment and the lack of statutory competence requirements for OIMs in controlling emergencies; the lack of ownership of OIM competence and competence assessment; and the lack of regulation and independent audit of the competence assessment process of OIMs in controlling emergencies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:752643 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Jennings, Maureen |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=237097 |
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