COS Announces Winners of the 2021 Safety Leadership Awards

HOUSTON, November 15, 2021 – The Center for Offshore Safety (COS) announced the winners of the 2021 Safety Leadership Awards during their Annual Safety Forum. The awards recognize 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 leveraged data to develop actionable practices to mitigate common risks in offshore operations and enhance safety,” COS Senior Director Russell Holmes said. “Information sharing to improve the collective knowledge of the industry is a core value for COS. The COS Safety Awards provide a venue to share good practices and support the industry’s commitment to continuously improve safety to reach our shared goal of zero incidents."

The COS 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 2021 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 2021 Safety Leadership Awards winners are:

• Baker Hughes: Time 2 Refocus: Mindfulness Techniques. The “Time 2 Refocus” program, was developed to enhance situational awareness when preforming routine tasks. Baker Hughes’ leadership committed to educating every employee on mindfulness techniques to ensure employees were focused and remained in the “here and now.” “Time 2 Refocus” was implemented using training materials, leadership training and personnel training to promote and teach mindfulness techniques that were easy to learn and apply. As a result, Baker Hughes saw a 61% reduction in incidents in the second half of 2020 compared to the first half, as well as a 23% reduction in incidents in the first half of 2021 compared to the first half of 2020. These results demonstrated an increase in overall awareness by employees across all North America Oilfield Services.
• Shell Offshore Inc.: Shell's Journey to Reduce High Potential Dropped Objects on Production Assets. Leadership of Shell Offshore Inc.’s (Shell) U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GoM) production operations has implemented a DROPS Strategy to address the risk of dropped objects in those operations. The lynchpin of the strategy is a uniform DROPS manual, which addresses production-specific drop hazards and was created in collaboration with those working offshore performing the daily work. Offshore DROPS Focal Points were identified for each asset to champion the prevention of dropped objects, identifying several improvements ranging from engineering out the hazard to generating ideas for products to prevent dropped objects for their craft. Since the implementation of DROPS Strategy, Shell’s GoM Production organization has seen a decrease in high potential dropped objects from 14 in 2018 to 5 in 2020.

The Center for Offshore Safety is an industry-led initiative established in 2011 to promote continual safety improvement for offshore drilling, completions and operations. COS accomplishes this goal through effective leadership, communication, teamwork, disciplined management systems, and independent third-party auditing and certification. Learn more about COS, its governance, and information on how to become a member at www.centerforoffshoresafety.org.

API represents all segments of America’s natural gas and oil industry, which supports more than 11 million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of millions of Americans. Our nearly 600 members produce, process and distribute the majority of the nation’s energy, and participate in API Energy Excellence®, which is accelerating environmental and safety progress by fostering new technologies and transparent reporting. API was formed in 1919 as a standards-setting organization and has developed more than 700 standards to enhance operational and environmental safety, efficiency and sustainability.

###