Newfoundland authorities have made considerable progress in improving offshore safety, but more can still be done, a leading official has claimed.

Private sector oil firms and regional authorities have made significant headway in improving offshore safety standards in recent months, but there are still areas in need of attention, according to the head of an inquiry investigating the Cougar Flight 491 crash.

The transport helicopter crashed in March 2009, killing 17 of the 18 crewmembers aboard. Passengers were bound for the Sea Rose floating production, storage and offloading vessel and the Hibernia platform.

After hearing evidence over five months, the commission began work on a roadmap to improve offshore safety throughout the regional oil and gas industry.

One of the key achievements so far is cutting response times from one hour to 30 minutes, but Mr Wells insists more needs to be done.

"I'm not sure why the response time is not yet able to be reduced to 15 or 20 minutes, but a half-an-hour is certainly an improvement over the hour which existed before," he told the broadcast station.

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