PRITCHARD-Gordon Tankers Limited (PGT) has collaborated with oil and gas company Shell to improve safety onboard its ships.

At a seminar at the Pegasus Hotel on Tuesday, workers were trained to understand the three-pillars of incident reduction which include reflective learning, leadership visits and learning engagement tools.

These elements are not unique to the company since it has implemented a programme that places emphasis on them.

“We have only started this since March this year… the company is monitoring the statistics and as word spreads we expect a decrease in minor incidents,” PTG representative and programme facilitator Nick Whalen-Griffiths said.

Reducing incidents was the mantra throughout the programme. The forum heard that in 2011, the company recorded an incident once every week but through implementation of the safety programme, accidents went down to one every 20 days.
Workers counted themselves lucky because Guyana was the third country to benefit from the programme. In the past, the programme was conducted in the United Kingdom and Poland.

“Safety of our crew is priority for the company; and there will always be ways to improve safety onboard,” he said.

PGT is one of a very few specialists, fully integrated British Tanker owning companies trading under the UK Tonnage Tax regime.

The company has two offices in the UK. Its head office in Sussex manages all commercial, insurance and accounting activities.

The technical management office in Tyne and Wear handles all day to day technical management, personnel and staff training, dry dockings, design and new building supervision.

Liaison with Oil Major vetting teams, industry bodies, regulators, classification societies and port state control offices are also handled from this office.

The team in Tyne and Wear is made up of five superintendent engineers, two deck superintendents, a head of personnel and various support staff.

The company is managed and run by a team of experienced specialists in the fields of sale and purchase, tanker chartering, vessel operations, marine engineering and vessel design.