The survey, commissioned by industry monitor Achilles and conducted by independent consultancy IFF, surveyed 97 oil and gas companies spanning Australia, the United Kingdom, the US, Spain, Brazil, South Africa and the Middle East.

Stormy weather 

The results have uncovered what Achilles director of strategy and commercial development James Palmer describes as a 'perfect storm of risk' brewing within the sector, as companies face mounting regulatory and compliance challenges emerging in the supply chain with fewer resources than ever to invest in proactive solutions.

While around 28 per cent of survey respondents said that they expected their suppliers to expose them to mounting legislation, around one in four said that they were not prepared to deal with the emerging risks. Approximately 10 per cent of respondents admitted that don't keep tabs on occupational health and safety information for their main suppliers, with the figure jumping to 37 per cent for those who lack policies to deal with health and safety in lower-tier suppliers.

Risk up, capacity down 

Mr Palmer says the figures are troubling, especially given that around 85 per cent of offshore personnel working within the sector are contractors.

'In the current economic environment facing the industry, the risk that suppliers and contractors take short cuts in terms of compliance inevitably increases. At the same time, the large operators are having to make thousands of redundancies across the globe, with fewer people in compliance departments to gather and check critical information from suppliers and assess their capabilities,' he said.

'In our experience, firms can protect themselves by putting in place an effective pre-qualification programme, supported by a robust program of desktop and physical auditing,' he added.

Source: EnergyGlobal