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Heliguard training boost

March 16, 1999, 08:00 CET

Measures are planned to improve recording and training follow-up of heliguards on Statoil's Heidrun platform in the Norwegian Sea.

The group has been criticised for inadequate monitoring of such training in a report from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) following a routine inspection on 9-10 February.

According to this report, this training has not been sufficiently systematic. They lack enough information about the various helicopter types, for instance. Nor has training been adequately recorded.

"Statoil must determine how it handles day-to-day supervision and internal monitoring of services related to offshore helicopter transport," the NPD finds.

The state agency has requested a written response from Statoil on how the group intends to follow up its obligations under Norway's civil aviation regulations.

"We haven't been given a direct order, but the NPD report contains a number of improvement proposals," comments vice president Øyvind Bratsberg in the Heidrun operations organisation.

"The inspection failed to find any inadequacies in the level of knowledge or training of crew on Heidrun."

Statoil has been asked by the NPD to consider various questions and comments presented in the report.

"The report focuses on our systematic recording and follow-up of training and refresher courses for heliguards and radio operators, and we realise we have a potential for improvement there," says Mr Bratsberg.

"We will now assess these proposals, and we can see that there's a need to review systems for recording and following-up employee expertise."

However, he points out that the heliguards on duty had the required training, and that the NPD failed to find any faults with the physical condition of the helideck.