Energy Tomorrow Blog
Q&A: New Center for Offshore Safety Director Talks Responsibilities, Goals
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John D. Siciliano
Posted May 20, 2020
Capt. Russell Holmes is the Center for Offshore Safety’s (COS) new director after serving for nearly three decades with the U.S. Coast Guard.
Holmes, who retired from the Coast Guard in 2020, takes over for Charlie Williams, who had led the center since 2012 after a long industry career. Holmes will be taking the center’s mission of offshore safety and environmental protection into its second decade of existence.
The center was created soon after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, the COS has enhanced the safety culture in offshore operations, while supporting federal regulations that mandate Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS) at all operations on the Outer Continental Shelf.
Just prior to joining the center, Holmes served as the Coast Guard’s senior point of contact for offshore safety in the Gulf, overseeing marine inspection and investigation programs that ultimately support SEMS. As he explains in the Q&A below, Holmes says the industry’s professionalism and safety commitment matched his while he was serving as one of industry’s lead regulators.
Safe Offshore Energy Development is in U.S. Best Interest
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Mark Green
Posted September 28, 2016
Safe offshore energy development is a by-product of advanced technologies and equipment, an ever-expanding knowledge base, improved worker training, an effective partnership of industry and regulatory authorities, constantly improving standards for deepwater exploration and production and, over it all, an industry committed to creating and growing a culture of safety in offshore operations.
Dialogue is Key to Getting Offshore Well Control Rule Right
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Mark Green
Posted September 14, 2015
Safe, responsible energy development in the Gulf of Mexico is vital to the U.S. economy and job growth, as well as U.S. energy and national security. Each of these points likely will come up during a U.S. House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the impact of federal policies on energy production and economic growth in the Gulf, Tuesday in New Orleans.
Safety and Accountability in Offshore Development
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Mark Green
Posted April 22, 2015
Just a few minutes after BP Group Chief Executive Robert Dudley addressed a CERAWeek luncheon crowd on post-Macondo efforts that have seen the company spend more than $44 billion on Gulf response and cleanup, I talked with Center for Offshore Safety Executive Director Charlie Williams about the center’s work to increase the safety culture in offshore energy development. Williams, who was named to his position in March 2012, talked about systems approaches to safety and what the center has learned about offshore safety in its first annual performance report, issued earlier this month. Highlights of the conversation below.
Making Offshore Operations Even Safer
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Mark Green
Posted April 9, 2015
Three zeroes stand out in the first annual performance report by the Center for Offshore Safety (COS), the oil and natural gas industry-led initiative to promote continuous offshore safety improvement following the 2010 Macondo incident: Zero fatalities, zero loss-of-well-control incidents and zero oil spills equal to or greater than 10,000 gallons in Gulf of Mexico operations.
Advancing Industry’s Safety Culture
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Mark Green
Posted May 16, 2014
Industry’s commitment to enhancing the safety to offshore energy development in the four years since the Macondo incident was reflected in a half-day program on prevention and response sponsored by the Center for Offshore Safety(COS) at last week’s Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston.
The COS hosted two panel discussions – one focused on developing effective safety systems, and a second that centered on the actions, processes and leadership needed to build strong safety cultures.
A System that Decides in Favor of Safety
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Mark Green
Posted April 21, 2014
I sat in on a luncheon briefing for reporters last week that featured Charlie Williams, executive director of the Center for Offshore Safety (COS), which focuses exclusively on enhancing the safety of offshore oil and natural gas.
Williams, a long-time engineer with Shell before agreeing to lead the COS, talked about the center’s activities in interesting detail – all designed to ensure a continuing culture of safety in offshore energy operations. It starts with recognizing where threats to safety come from and erecting barriers to those threats, he said.
Safety Management and Deep Water Drilling
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Mark Green
Posted October 3, 2012
Center for Offshore Safety Names Director, Former Shell Chief Scientist
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Mark Green
Posted March 7, 2012
Drilling Safety, Energy Security
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Jack Gerard
Posted May 25, 2011