BSEE Director and U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Discuss Joint Operations
The discussions took place during a luncheon panel at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.
The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's director, Brian Salerno, held a discussion with U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Paul Thomas at last week's Offshore Technology Conference in Houston in which they focused on joint inspections and regulatory issues, according to BSEE.
The two described protocol for sharing information on worst case discharge scenarios, as well as how joint working groups and quarterly meetings create collaboration. According to Salerno, Safety and Environmental Management Systems serve the common goal of coordination with the offshore industry and safe practices. SEMS has evolved in the past six years, with an ongoing process of improvement regarding how safety is incorporated into work performed offshore, he said, with both predicting that SEMS effectiveness will continue to grow through improved communication and that SEMS' effectiveness will improve when operators focus on learning from what works and what does not with safety issues.
"The goal of risk-based inspections is to drive safety performance beyond where we are now by perhaps looking at things differently than our regular inspections and SEMS audits," Salerno said.