The offshore safety authority for Australia has highlighted that training and safety programmes must be central to all oil exploration and production at sea.

John Clegg, the chief executive of the Australian National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (Nopsa), said that the oil sector should work to achieve its health and safety goals over the course of the coming year.

"The industry needs to focus on supervision, training and competence, and implementation of safety systems," Mr Clegg said in the latest newsletter from Nopsa.

He added that currently personal injury rates are high and that hydrocarbon releases also reinforce the need for process safety and facility management systems.

Mr Clegg noted that Nopsa is currently in the process of creating a set of guidance notes for the creation of safety cases, so that fewer safety case submissions will be rejected and operators will have more support in fulfilling current regulations.

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