‘Gung-ho’ days are over on mental health issues

● CNOOC boss hails huge advances in help for offshore workers

ANorth Sea boss says the industry’s focus on the health and wellbeing of its workforce is far removed from its “gung-ho” days of the past.

Ray Riddoch, UK managing director and senior vice-president Europe and Africa of CNOOC International, was speaking at the Oil and Gas UK HSE Conference in Aberdeen yesterday.

Mr Riddoch, who started his career in the early 1980s, said the old ways of working were long gone.

He added: “I didn’t think as I was coming to the end of my working career that I would be participating so often not only in conversations about operational safety or process safety, but in conversations round about emotional wellbeing and mental health.

“I’ve been in this industry for a number of years now ... and I spent an extended part of my working life offshore. It was gung-ho.

“That’s gone. We have to listen to our workforce and we have the challenge now of understanding mental health and, in particular, removing the stigma around about it.”

There has been growing focus on the mental health of the onshore and offshore

oil and gas workforce in recent years.

Concerns have been raised that extended threeweek rotas offshore may impact mental health, and in turn safety, with the Health and Safety Executive carrying out work to understand the

full effects of longer shift patterns.

CNOOC holds drop-in sessions for workers to improve awareness and support those needing help.

Mr Riddoch said it was a “lesson” that many of those who were struggling

were not obviously going through a hard time. He added: “Someone said to me recently you can see when a man has a broken leg but you can’t see when he’s got a broken mind.

“I thought that was quite powerful.

“After a series of events

I had more than 15 colleagues email me and they shared their situations. They were very open.

“If you’d asked me to choose 15 people from my organisation that have had a challenge with their mental wellbeing, it would not have been these 15.”

HAILING HELP: Ray Riddoch of CNOOC told the HSE Conference in Aberdeen about changes he has seen in help for mental health issues