Official opening of the National Oil and Gas Offshore Safety Conference

26/5/99
Training in techniques which improve safety on offshore gas and oil rigs was of critical importance to the industry's future prosperity, Employment and Training Minister Graham Kierath told a national conference today.
Mr Kierath said a greater emphasis on safety was also a signpost to a more efficient and cost-effective resources industry.
He was officially opening the National Oil and Gas Offshore Safety Conference being held at the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Centre on the East Perth campus of Central Metropolitan College of TAFE.
About 100 industry delegates from throughout Australia and South-East Asia are attending the two-day conference. Key speakers will focus on improving safety by such means as virtual reality training, quantitative risk assessment and establishing a safety management system.
Mr Kierath said over the past five or six years, new oil and gas production ventures had stimulated investment in Australia's resources sector, averaging $2 billion a year.
"If anything, the slowdown in our regional market in recent months has sharpened our awareness that we need a highly trained and skilled local workforce to make the most of our opportunities," he said.
The Australian Oil and Gas Industry Training Centre established at Central TAFE in March last year is already proving very successful in training operators for oil and gas well control, well site processing and environmental technology.
"The State Government saw the need for a specialised training centre to ensure the hydrocarbons industry had access to the very best training systems and services," the Minister said.
"Now trainees are being exposed to some of the most sophisticated software models and training simulators in use anywhere in the world to prepare them for anything they might meet in the real workplace."
A recently opened Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality Centre at Central TAFE (May 17) would draw from the latest safety technology pioneered by Nottingham University in England.
Mr Kierath praised the 'fruitful partnership' between the oil and gas industry and training providers for the advances being made in the VET sector.
"Nationally accredited and customised courses, the new emphasis on employees committing themselves to a lifetime of training to be more adaptable, and encouragement for the view that people need to be prepared to change direction throughout their working life, all show we are responding better to industry's needs," he said.
Mr Kierath said the opportunities for technology transfer at the conference would help build on a safety record which was already impressive in world terms.
The Sydney-based Centre for Mining and Energy is co-hosting the forum.
Media contact: Steve Manchee (08) 9213 6400