From the President - July 2003
It has been a great pleasure to see IMCA establish its new Europe & Africa Section, chaired by Robin Davies from Subsea 7, and to schedule its first meeting for Paris. Coming hard on the heels of the Americas Deepwater Section, this excellent development means that IMCA now has all of its regional sections operating under the new international structure set down in January 2003.
In another international development, the annual marine and safety seminar for this year is to take place in Houston in November. Before that, however, in a joint initiative with the SEL core committee, the Europe & Africa Section will also l host a special seminar on security issues arising from working offshore West Africa. This takes place in response to clear requests from many IMCA members to have a common approach to working in areas where security is a major issue and to create the networks and trust required to share any lessons learned by doing so.
Meanwhile, IMCA's initiatives on 'Construction All Risks' (CAR) insurance and the development of standard terms and conditions for contractor members continue to make steady progress after lively seminars in Houston and London involving major clients and the insurance industry. It's hoped that the OMC will be able to report later this year with new proposals for a collective way forward, not least in respect of the challenge of CAR.
In my own travels recently, I have been through pretty much every region in the world, including Australia, the Far East and the Americas. The overwhelming message from these visits is that contractor members are anxious for IMCA to make progress on this agenda, so the work will remain a very high priority over coming months. The goal remains a standard set of terms and conditions acceptable to both contractors and clients, similar in function to those that exist within the drilling industry. Getting them right offers us the potential to cut waste (of costly legal negotiations) and add value in the form of a more consistent, cost-effective framework.
On a different subject, IMCA continues to rely on its members for key information. In its latest exercise of this kind, it is currently preparing a questionnaire to be used to conduct a contractor survey intended to map the skill shortages known to exist or be emerging across the industry. With robust information, IMCA will be much better placed to liaise with government and training organisations to ensure that yawning gaps do not emerge over the coming decade among both offshore marine and onshore technical staff. We ask members to fully support the survey, because its results are likely to affect the long term future of the sector as a whole.
Steve Preston, Heerema Marine Contractors
IMCA President 2003-4
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