Peter Klip, Business Unit Manager Area West: “When I carry out a management inspection, I don’t use a checklist from Q-Aid. I engage in dialog, because I really want to find out what’s going on. I don’t have to say a lot: people talk passionately about their work anyway. Five years after the launch of NINA, I can see that they really do think about safety and are proud to demonstrate how they act on it in their day-to-day work."

On the Lazaro Cardenas (Mexico) project, I spoke to Mariano Capriotti, the Chief Captain of the Cyrus. He said that for cost reasons they were hiring a multicat from a third party. This results in certain operations taking longer. But what worried him most was that inexperienced crew members are at greater risk of having an accident. "Luckily," he said, "our people take steps themselves to make everything run safely. And then a Marine Supervisor, or one of our crew members, can go aboard to help."

The dilemma is: do we take our own auxiliary equipment or should we hire equipment from third parties if it’s cheaper? I feel that you can’t simply answer this question with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. But, following my discussion with Mariano, next time I will be able to take more factors into account than just the costs alone.”