A newly-developed simulator able to provide realistic training with crane and other lifting operations opens in Trondheim today, 9 November.
Intended for crane drivers, deck workers and supply ship crews, this facility has been developed by the Ship Manoeuvring Simulator (SMS) in cooperation with Statoil and Hitec Vision.
The equipment is owned and operated by SMS at its Ladehammeren site in Trondheim.
Statoil has purchased sufficient capacity to send 200 people on courses annually for the next five years. All the group's 400 employees in the relevant trades offshore and on land stand to benefit.
Rune Botnevik, Statoil's project manager, expects to see safety gains from the new facility.
"We've made good progress by almost halving the number of injuries relating to crane and other lifting operations in recent years," he notes. "The crane simulator is one of several measures intended to achieve further improvement."
Statoil is also pressing to establish a professional education for crane drivers in Norway.