Within the UKCS offshore oil and gas industry there exist key personnel who perform critical roles in an emergency as part of the installation's emergency response team (ERT), two of these personnel are the Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) and the offshore Control Room Operator (CRO). The OIM is responsible for the safety and well-being of all persons onboard and within 500 m of the installation. Should an emergency situation arise, the OIM performs one of the most critical roles in emergency response - management of the response to the emergency to mitigate and make safe the installation to secure a place of safety for persons onboard or organise their safe evacuation. Such emergency response shall also include limiting the loss of hydrocarbons to the environment. The CRO monitors and interprets the output from an installation's Distributed Control System (DCS) and Fire and Gas Panel (FGP), responding to alarms and deviations from steady state. In many instances, an offshore CRO's actions in response to these deviations can determine whether or not the situation deteriorates into a disaster. Should an emergency occur, the CRO will act in accordance with an installation's emergency response procedures and OIM instructions.

The persistence of incidents, a number leading to disasters, in the industry highlights the importance of both OIM and CRO competence in controlling emergencies. Both positions require an effective system to assess the competence of job holders. Research at the University of Aberdeen identified potential barriers that can prevent the effective competence assessment of an OIM in emergency response. An extension to this research analyses the two offshore industry standards for competence in emergency response: OPITO 7025 – OIM Controlling Emergencies and OPITO 9004 – Control Room Operator Emergency Response, and associated documentation, applying a critical hermeneutic approach, focusing on the assessment of underpinning knowledge and understanding within the roles. The key findings are that there currently exists no effective means to assess the underpinning technical knowledge and understanding of either OIMs or CROs in emergency response within the offshore industry. Knowledge and, in particular, understanding are poorly defined within the relevant OPITO standards. There exists no validation of evidence collated to support an individual's underpinning knowledge and understanding and no truly independent audit of collated evidence or the process of assessment.

The research is important to Duty Holders (see also OSD Installation Operators under UK Offshore Safety Directive Regulations) and employers within the offshore oil and gas industry, organisations associated with the offshore industry, safety engineers and UK Government departments with regard to the effectiveness of competence assessment of appointed OIMs and CROs. It is also significant to risk engineers when considering the probable competence of key emergency response personnel in a given environment at a given point in time. The research is not just applicable to the UKCS offshore industry but also to the global offshore oil and gas industry.

在UKCS的海上石油和天然气行业中，有一些重要人员在紧急事件中扮演关键角色，这些人员是该装置的应急响应小组（ERT）的一部分，其中两名是海上安装经理（OIM）和海上控制室操作员（ CRO）。OIM负责船上所有人以及安装后500 m以内的所有人的安全和福祉。如果发生紧急情况，OIM将在紧急响应中扮演最关键的角色之一-对紧急响应的管理，以减轻和确保安装的安全，以确保船上人员安全或组织安全疏散。这种紧急响应还应包括限制碳氢化合物向环境的损失。CRO监视并解释安装的输出 ■分布式控制系统（DCS）和火气面板（FGP），对警报和稳态偏差做出响应。在许多情况下，离岸CRO应对这些偏差的行动可以确定情况是否恶化为灾难。万一发生紧急情况，CRO将按照设备的紧急响应程序和OIM指示进行操作。

行业中的事件持续不断，导致灾难的发生，这凸显了OIM和CRO能力在控制紧急情况中的重要性。这两个职位都需要一个有效的系统来评估工作人员的能力。阿伯丁大学的研究确定了可能阻碍OIM在应急响应中进行有效能力评估的潜在障碍。这项研究的扩展部分分析了两种海上行业应急响应能力标准：OPITO 7025 – OIM控制突发事件和OPITO 9004 –控制室操作员应急响应，以及相关文档，采用了关键的解释学方法，重点在于评估基础知识和角色内的理解。关键发现是，目前尚没有有效的方法来评估海上行业内应急响应中OIM或CRO的基础技术知识和理解。在相关的OPITO标准中，知识（尤其是理解）的定义不充分。尚无用于支持个人的基础知识和理解的经核对证据的验证，也没有对核对的证据或评估过程进行真正的独立审核。

对于能力持有人的有效性（对于英国海上安全指令条例中的OSD安装操作员）和海上油气行业的雇主，与海上工业相关的组织，安全工程师和英国政府部门而言，这项研究非常重要评估指定的OIM和CRO。对于风险工程师而言，在给定的时间点考虑给定环境中关键紧急响应人员的能力时，这也很重要。该研究不仅适用于UKCS海上工业，而且还适用于全球海上石油和天然气工业。