Bondu you have hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately the oil companies have most of us by the proverbials. In an operation of which I know pilots are employed either by the oil company itself or supplied by an outside contractor. The company pilots salary is subject to a yearly assessment made by the chief pilot. You can imagine how that keeps the troops in line. A recent assessment read (because the pilot called into question practices such as "why do we not plan for alternates as required by the regulations?") ........gets some out of perspective concerns as to how some things should/must be done which is where he has alienated successive managements over the years. The chief pilot was kind enough to add that he did not think there was any ".... malicious intent or scheming in his actions." This was for submitting company incident reports detailing how failure to comply with regulations had compromised flight safety. Contractor pilots are not going to stick their heads out of the sand as the industry is controlled by the oil company aviation advisors. Anyone who earns a reputation will find themselves effectively on a black list as all the advisors form a very small group. The trouble is, for the most part, pilots in the offshore world have no, or at best, very little industrial muscle. One can only assume that the regulator is so short staffed that they are unable to effectively oversee operations.
Blue Skies, Brian