Mr. Mayor, ladies and
gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure for me, on
behalf of the minister of local government and regional
development, to wish the delegates to this conference welcome to
Norway. I would like to thank the Society of Petroleum Engineers
for choosing Norway as venue for the 5th international conference
on health, safety and environment.
Norway has long traditions for
having concerns for health, safety and environment. We like to
believe that we may give some valuable contributions to the
international efforts on these issues.
The world is rapidly growing
smaller, and we become more and more dependent on international
co-operation to achieve our common goals in this area. Saying this,
I am pleased to see that the speakers to this conference are highly
qualified representatives from respected companies and
organisations from all over the world. I have also been informed
that the Society has a considerable impact on the industry.
In Norway a lot of different
ministries share the governmental responsibility for health, safety
and environment.
In spite of this fact, the
Government makes every effort to ensure that matters of health,
safety and environment, in particular for the offshore petroleum
industry, are dealt with as a whole.
I am determined that the management
of health, safety and environment must be seen as part of the total
quality management within the companies.
To create this uniform approach to
management of HSE, the Government is in the process of carrying out
a complete review of the legislation.
The aim for this project is to
provide a new structure, which will bring together the current
regulations managed by different authorities into one new Royal
Decree and four sub-ordinate sets of regulations. This will in fact
create one single set of legislation for the offshore industry when
it comes to HSE-matters. I believe this is quite unique!
The work is conducted with close
co-operation between the involved authorities as well as with the
industry and the labour unions. When the process is completed, the
Government expects this innovation to give a positive and
cost-effective result.
The Government has various motives
for the management of health, safety and environment. Firstly, in a
welfare society, the health and safety for people is an important
and obvious objective in itself. Financial wealth for a country is
of little value if people’s life and health have to be sacrificed.
The Norwegian requirements relating to HSE are therefore not
negotiable on a cost-benefit basis.
Secondly, the Government believes
that a quality performance in this area may also prove to be
financially profitable for the industry as well as for the
society.
For quite some time, there has been
a general understanding of the fact that the industry and the
authorities have common interests with regard to safety. It is well
known that fires, explosions etc. may create considerable
losses.
With regard to working environment,
it is more difficult to make the industry fully accept the benefits
of maintaining a high standard. I am not implying that the
companies behave in a cynical manner with regard to the employees'
safety and health.
Nevertheless, it is a fact that the
expenses caused by working accidents and work related diseases are
mainly carried by the society through the health security
system.
I also believe that the industry
easily underestimates the costs that accidents and diseases can
mean for the companies.
Also with regard to the
environment, the society and the companies may to some extent have
different motives – maybe also a different degree of motivation –
for their performance. A driving force for the industry is of
course the threat of massive claims for compensation or huge
clean-up costs in case of a pollution accident.
It is also an interesting trend
that an increasing number of investors now introduce ethical
criteria for the investment objects, including environment
protection performance. Furthermore, the ordinary customer may
react negatively towards companies that do not perform up to
ethical standards. This may turn out to be a strong driving force
as well.
The Norwegian Government believes
that a sound management of health, safety and environment does not
necessarily impose extra costs on the industry. The companies must
have a long-term plan for their achievements!
Based on this fact it is with quite
some scepticism the Ministry observes that organisational changes
seem to introduce a shorter planning horizon within certain parts
of the industry. We see it as the main challenge ahead to ensure
that health, safety and environment can be maintained and developed
further under these conditions.
The United Nations, as shown by the
Commission on Sustainable Development, also addresses the
international issues. One important action is the Expert Meeting
that will be held after this SPE conference here in Stavanger.
I know that some of you will attend
the Expert meeting. Let me therefore go back to my initial words
were I welcomed the initiative taken by the Society of Petroleum
Engineers to bring together people who have an impact on the future
development in this area.
Lastly, in the faith that this
conference may contribute to further moves in the right direction,
it only remains for me to wish the organisers as well as each
individual delegate the best of luck with the conference.
Thank you for your attention.
