Achieving three consecutive years without a Lost Time Injury is a significant milestone for any offshore installation. Doing so during a period of operational and cultural complexity makes it exceptional.
Over the last three years, GHTH has operated under a contractually required crew rotation, involving the annual replacement of a defined number of personnel (approximately 15%) to meet local regulatory obligations. Combined with a highly diverse workforce and the inherent pressures of offshore drilling operations, this creates an environment that rigorously tests leadership and operational discipline.
What changed was not paperwork.
What changed was how safety was led and lived on the rig.
Under renewed leadership, led by Rig Manager Luke Byrne, expectations were clarified, supervision became more consistent, and confidence across the workforce strengthened. Standards were applied fairly and predictably. Coaching replaced assumption, and deviations were addressed early, before they became incidents.
A further differentiator in sustaining this performance has been the structured onboarding and capability development of incoming personnel. Each year, newly assigned crew, many of whom have no prior offshore experience and have never worked on a drilling rig, complete a comprehensive foundation and vocational training pathway delivered in partnership with SeaTag. This includes an intensive onshore theory programme covering Energy Drilling procedures, risk assessment, permit to work, and core safety principles, followed by vocational training in areas such as rigging and slinging, lifting operations, and working at heights. This foundation is reinforced through an extended period of supervised on-board practical training and mentoring, ensuring competence is developed before exposure to higher-risk tasks. This approach has been instrumental in maintaining consistent standards despite mandated crew rotation and has materially strengthened safety performance across the asset.
A critical part of this journey has also been the active partnership with our client, whose visible commitment to safety reinforced the importance of leadership behaviours at every level. With their support, GHTH engaged structured safety culture coaching and development programmes delivered by REACH Group, helping leaders and supervisors strengthen communication, build psychological safety, and move from compliance to genuine engagement. This external perspective complemented on-board leadership efforts and accelerated cultural maturity across the asset.
The result was a marked and sustained reduction in incidents, including property damage and HSE events, transforming GHTH from a statistical outlier into a model of stable, predictable, and disciplined operations.
This achievement belongs to:
• Offshore leaders who were visible, decisive, and present
• Supervisors who invested time in mentoring, verification, and coaching
• Crews who built trust across cultural and linguistic boundaries
• A safety system that was applied consistently, not selectively
Reflecting on the milestone following his visit to the rig, Energy Drilling CEO Marcus Chew said:
“Safety is not something we manage from an office, it is something we demonstrate every day in the field. What I saw on GHTH was leadership in action: people looking out for one another, challenging when something didn’t feel right, and holding themselves to one standard. Three years without an LTI tells me this is not about slogans. It’s about commitment, discipline, and care for the people who make this operation possible.”
Three years without an LTI does not mean risk disappeared.
It means risk was recognised, discussed, and controlled, day after day, at the point of work.
GHTH’s journey reinforces a simple truth:
Strong safety performance is built through leadership behaviours, trusted partnerships, and disciplined execution, not statistics alone.
