This resulted in a conference held in Mumbai recently for the company’s senior officers.
The ‘Seafarers’ Safety Conference’ was seen as a platform for OSC’s subsidiary Oman Ship Management Company (OSMC) to share the best safety practices and current and future trends in the maritime industry with its seafarers, the company said.
The conference came on the back of the latest company employment figures, which showed 1,775 crew members working across 41 vessels – a rise 500% since 2010 - when the total crew numbers were under 400.
Key topics covered during the two-day conference ranged from the current regulatory framework to practical situations faced at sea. Non-technical topics, such as multi-cultural crew management, on board procurement and the handling of social networks were also discussed.
OSC CEO, Tarik Al Junaidi, said: “The event was attended by more than 100 members of sea and offshore staff, highlighted the company’s continuing and ceaseless commitment to safety and best practice on all the vessels in its fleet. Mumbai was chosen as the venue for the conference because it is a major international shipping hub and a large number of OSC’s sea staff hail from India.
“Our strong message to everyone attending the conference is that our safety culture starts with them. They are all managers of the safety for themselves and everyone around them. OSMC remains absolutely committed to, and is passionate about, maintaining the highest international standards of safety and environmental responsibility.
“Events like this Officers’ Safety Conference enable us to continue to achieve those high standards and to drive home our safety messages, whilst also sharing the latest industry best practices. Conferences like this play an important role in the continual development of our highly professional sea staff,” he said.
The company’s commitment to safety begins with its recruitment and training processes. Safety plays a large role in the curriculum when it comes to OSC’s Scholarship Programme (cadetship), which sees high school recruits study either for Nautical Science or Marine Engineering in maritime colleges in Oman or in the UK.
OSC said that it was also keen on developing its seafarers through the Scholarship Programme for securing management level certificates, under which fully paid scholarships are made available to the local seafarers enrolled with the company. Safety is again a central part of this programme.
OSMC COO, Capt David Stockley, said: “OSMC looks after the company’s in-house shipmanagement activities. Through its long experience in the technical management, the company has formed effective working structures to enhance the link between the vessels and offshore support through its crew, operation and HSE departments.
“Safety at sea runs through all our training initiatives and sea staff progressions. We have still not suffered a lost time accident since we started keeping records in 2009. Moreover, we are rated a ‘better operator’ by the Tanker Management Self-Assessment (TMSA) programme,” he said.
OSC currently operates 50 ships of different types, including VLCCs, LNGCs and chemical/product tankers. Two more MRs will join the fleet by the end of November as part of the ‘Silver’ project between OSC and Shell ‘to build 10 MRs. All of the MRs will be technically managed by OSMC.