The point about the crap offshore installations - especially in GOM is well founded. I believe Shell theoretically would like to raise the GOM standard to match the norm in most of the the third world (!) but unfortunately / conveniently (?) they can't unless the other operators agree (the FAA are no part of the equation...).
Its funny how the manufacturers home in on selling new technology... or extra gadgets at least.
From an operator's perspective SMS is probably more important but noticably there is now thinking that SMS will only work in organizations that have a good safety culture. See this facinating article:
http://www.flightsafety.org/asw/may0...y08_p12-17.pdf