Aberdeen, 25 February 2014, Petrotechnics, the global leader in transforming frontline operational performance and lowering operational risk is pleased to announce its Supporting Sponsorship of what is set to be one of the most prominent SPE conferences of the year - Another Perspective on Risk.

Held at the Aberdeen Exhibition Centre on 05 March, the conference will review a range of risk dimensions including those affected by human factors. In addition, it will take a deeper look at the next generation sources of risk that have emerged since Cullen’s recommendations in the 1990’s, following the Piper disaster.

Another Persepctive on Risk will gather a prestigious collection of experts from around the world, including Susan Mckenzie (Head of HSE Executive) and Les Linklater (Team Leader of Step Change in Safety). This will be the first SPE event to focus on human factors and their role in driving risk. Petrotechnics has spent 25 years working with companies to consider the impact of human factors on the riskier part of their operational environment – the interaction between plant and people - work control and execution. Sponsoring the event was a natural and welcome opportunity.

Petrotechnics’ CEO Phil Murray explains ‘For decades, SPE have been delivering thought leading and provocative conferences for O&G professionals all over the world. It has won the global reputation for sharing insights, best practices and providing a platform for practical discussion about ensuring organisational and individual competency. With the first human factors risk event of its kind in our home market, we felt it was appropriate to support and sponsor an event addressing such pertinent issues, particularly since our domain is in risk management.’ Murray continues ‘As a technology provider, we understand the risks of deploying technology without understanding the impact of both processes and people. Over the years, we’ve helped many organisations identify how and where to simplify the complexities of the frontline operations to take the human factors into account. Empowering the human is important to us, where better support is required when it comes to operational decision making in such an unpredictable environment.  Hopefully, we can contribute to this event as well as learn from some of our peers’

Chair of SPE Another Perspective Committee, Ella Minty commented:  “Human risk, just like Lord Cullen said in his latest interview for the Conference, is a topic that has been constantly avoided for many years. However, no forward and sustainable industry progress can be achieved without allowing the human risk to be one of the main pillars of HSE. In constantly changing working environments, in introducing new plant and equipment, in rolling out a variety of initiatives across the business or project regions, people play a major and often overlooked role.

Petrotechnics, one of the risk management leaders of the UK oil and gas industry, has certainly understood that there is a need to genuinely address the human risk and their supporting sponsorship of the AP Conference came very shortly after its official launch. As one of the Sections of the largest membership organisation in the world, SPE Aberdeen is grateful to Petrotechnics for its support - attainable outcomes cannot be achieved without the sponsors’ support and willingness to take them further.”

For more information on the event please visit http://www.spe-ap.org/about or for information about our products and services www.petrotechnics.com