Offshore board accepts chopper safety report

The board that regulates the oil industry off Newfoundland's east coast said Monday it accepts almost all of the 29 recommendations from an inquiry following a fatal March 2009 helicopter crash.

The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, though, referred the most important recommendation made last month by inquiry commissioner Robert Wells — that a separate, "powerful" agency be created apart from the C–NLOPB — to government interests for a decision.

In effect, the board rejected the following part of Wells's recommendation that calls for the creation of a stand-alone offshore safety agency.

"Under the terms of reference, I cannot recommend directly to government, and so this recommendation 29 is being made to the C–NLOPB.... My recommendation is therefore that C–NLOPB itself recommend to both governments the changes to the regulatory regime which I have recommended," Wells wrote in the report, which was publicly released on Nov. 17.

The board's CEO and chair said Monday that the board did not make that recommendation to governments.

"We believe that that decision is a policy matter and policy should be determined by those people who are elected to govern, not by regulators. We won't offer any recommendation on a policy matter," said Max Ruelokke

Ruelokke said the question of creating a separate agency will be left for the federal and provincial governments to decide.

Conflicts of interest highlighted

Wells, a retired justice from the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, oversaw the inquiry into helicopter safety that highlighted numerous areas for improvement.

The inquiry was held weeks after a Cougar helicopter ferrying oil industry workers offshore crashed on March 12, 2009, killing 17 people.

Wells was told during the inquiry that the C–NLOPB had inherent conflicts of interest, as it focused both on selling offshore oil exploration and development rights and on regulating the companies that won bids.

Also on Monday, the C–NLOPB qualified its adoption of recommendation 12, which discourages the resumption of offshore nighttime chopper flights.

Ruelokke said the board will continue the ban on night flights for now, but will revisit that decision once Cougar Helicopters — a St. John's-based company that ferries workers to platforms and installations offshore — has improved its search-and-rescue capabilities.

Ruelokke said the board will take steps to make more information about helicopter safety available to offshore workers.

The Transpotation Safety Board of Canada is investigating the cause of the crash of Cougar's Sikorsky S92A.

The TSB has completed a draft report of its investigation, but its final report, which will be available to the public, has not been completed.

The final report should be available in 2011, a safety board official said.