Assurance and Competency services
Why is Competency Assurance vital for Oil and Gas?
Oil and Gas regulators are putting increasingly more pressure on companies in the sector to declare and prove the competence of their people.
In the Oil and Gas sector, competency management is about much more than the individual’s personal development. Competence is a major component to ensuring reduced environmental risks and assuring the safety of others because lives and huge investments are at risk of being damaged or destroyed.
Examination of the causes of offshore disasters has led regulators to conclude that it’s not just about equipment failure, it is people’s ability to manage, operate and maintain equipment as well as their ability to behave in the right way at the right time that can make the difference between a major event occurring or not.
There are many definitions for the term ‘competency’ but common to most of them is that ‘ability’ is one of the key components along with knowledge and skills that encapsulate what a competency is. For this reason, Oil and Gas regulators are driving the need for companies to continuously prove that their people are competent.
Competencies for Oil and Gas include technical competencies for Well Design and Construction, Well Completions, Subsea Engineering, Engineering Operations, and Maintenance. These do not provide a complete picture, according to regulations and standards.
Experienced engineers and companies recognize that those behaviors associated with competencies such as Accountability, Problem Solving, Decision-making, Attention to Detail, Safety Leadership, and their relationship to Health and Safety are as vital as technical competence, and therefore, must be continuously upgraded.
There is a vital need for Oil and Gas companies to have the systems and modalities with which to identify, assess, and capture employee competencies, determine competency gaps and address them, especially in safety-related competencies.
The very ability to provide evidence of competence serves as the company’s license to freely and confidently operate and achieve its goals.
