View Full Version : Poor Oil Companies
Article in 'Scotsman' newspaper. It would appear that the combined profits of BP and Shell are still not sufficient to spend money on increasing the safety of offshore flying. They only made £25billion last year.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=190492006
mrwellington
7th Feb 2006, 21:15
Noooooo, this can't be :rolleyes:
S92mech
7th Feb 2006, 21:17
Shell and BP are spending money in the GOM for increased safety. Contracts spec new aircraft like S-92s and EC-135s, factory maintenance training, duty times, TCAS, EGPWS, HEELS and the list goes on.
SASless
7th Feb 2006, 22:01
Anyone care to bet how long (if ever ) it takes Chevron to do the same thing? I will bet a dog dropping to a dough nut and you can hold the stakes in yer mouth....they will never do so as long as cheap is cool. Escravos will never see a light twin with IFR capability....that is a no brainer!
mikelimapapa
8th Feb 2006, 01:50
Not that I know anything about the offshore industry, but I've already read several complaints about safety on this forum. Seems like there should be an international union of offshore helicopter pilots. A worldwide strike would cripple the greedy oil companies, therefore they would be forced to give into safety demands. In 2005 alone, exxonmobil made $36 billion in profit, chevron $27 billion, shell $23 billion and bp $19 billion. Even with record profits two years in a row they couldn't spend 250k pound to fund safety advances? Thats bull:mad:! I've read that some individual companies have unions, but it seems to me that they need to unite on a larger scale to really have the affect that is needed.
HowlingWind
8th Feb 2006, 02:35
If I'm not mistaken, MikeLimaPapa, the pilots for one of the GOM offshore operators (Air Log, I believe) did unionise some years back. However, I also believe they have since been de-certified.
Being a relative newcomer, this is probably going to sound really naive - but here goes, anyway...
Is there no way to lobby the FAA to establish minimums for the industry?
SASless
8th Feb 2006, 04:41
No matter how interested individual employees might be, or what assistance a manufacturer offers, or how insistent a certificating authority might be — none of these factors will have a significant effect on safety without support from top management.
Howling...
Air Log is union...still is...and from all indications is going to remain so.
PHI is union...CBA under negotiation for two years now...fight coming.
ERA is non-union but rumours are efforts being made to organize them exist.
Air Methods....large EMS operator is now union...CBA being negotiated....fight coming.
Fort Rucker Instructor pilots are union now....
The GOM unions are now participating with IALPA and have gotten active in the safety committee there.
PHPA is beginning to grow and is getting active in the safety field by representing "pilots" on the committees.
A bit of searching and you can find press releases and magazine articles on the web that discuss some of the latest safety initiatives that industry groups in the USA and Canada are developing. Meetings including operators, the FAA, NTSB, Oil Company Safety Reps, and others are beginning to become more frequent and involved in improving safety.
The latest issue of Autorotate Magazine reports the outcome of the American Helicopter Society International Safety Seminar in Montreal back in September. Other trade journals have articles about that and other meetings.