1.1 We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors; this policy sets out how we will treat your personal information.
1.2 By using our website and agreeing to this policy, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy.
Collecting personal information
2.1 We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal information:
(a) information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website (including your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths);
(b) information that you provide to us when registering with our website (including your email address)
(c) information that you provide when completing your profile on our website (including your name, user name, country/region, employment details, password);
(d) information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our email notifications and/or newsletters (including your name and email address);
(e) information that you provide to us when using the services on our website, or that is generated in the course of the use of those services (including the timing, frequency and pattern of service use;
(f) information relating to any purchases you make of our goods / services / goods and/or services or any other transactions that you enter into through our website (including your name, address, telephone number, email address and card details;
(g) information that you post to our website for publication on the internet (including your user name, your profile pictures and the content of your posts);
(h) information contained in or relating to any communications that you send to us or send through our website (including the communication content and meta data associated with the communication);
(i) any other personal information that you choose to send to us; and
2.2 Before you disclose to us the personal information of another person, you must obtain that person's consent to both the disclosure and the processing of that personal information in accordance with the terms of this policy.
Using your personal information
3.1 Personal information submitted to us through our website will be used for the purposes specified in this policy or on the relevant pages of the website.
3.2 We may use your personal information to:
(a) administer our website and business;
(b) personalise our website for you;
(c) enable your use of the services available on our website;
(d) send you goods purchased through our website;
(e) supply to you services purchased through our website;
(f) send statements, invoices and payment reminders to you, and collect payments from you;
(g) send you non-marketing commercial communications;
(h) send you email notifications that you have specifically requested;
(i) send you our email newsletter, if you have requested it (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require the newsletter);
(j) send you marketing communications relating to our business or the businesses of carefully-selected third parties which we think may be of interest to you, by post or, where you have specifically agreed to this, by email or similar technology (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require marketing communications);
(k) provide third parties with statistical information about our users (but those third parties will not be able to identify any individual user from that information);
(l) deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to our website;
(m) keep our website secure and prevent fraud;
(n) verify compliance with the terms and conditions governing the use of our website (including monitoring private messages sent through our website private messaging service);
3.3 If you submit personal information for publication on our website, we will publish and otherwise use that information in accordance with the licence you grant to us.
3.4 Your privacy settings can be used to limit the publication of your information on our website, and can be adjusted using privacy controls on the website.
3.5 We will not, without your express consent, supply your personal information to any third party for the purpose of their or any other third party's direct marketing.
3.6 All our website financial transactions are handled through our payment services provider, Paypal. You can review the provider's privacy policy at https://www.paypal.com/gr/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full. We will share information with our payment services provider only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments you make via our website, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds.
Disclosing personal information
4.1 We may disclose your personal information to any of our employees, officers, insurers, professional advisers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
4.2 We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group of companies (this means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and all its subsidiaries) insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
4.3 We may disclose your personal information:
(a) to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
(b) in connection with any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings;
(c) in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk);
(d) to the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset that we are (or are contemplating) selling; and
(e) to any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that personal information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that personal information.
4.4 Except as provided in this policy, we will not provide your personal information to third parties.
International data transfers
5.1 Information that we collect may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which we operate in order to enable us to use the information in accordance with this policy.
5.2 Information that we collect may be transferred to the following countries which do not have data protection laws equivalent to those in force in the European Economic Area: the United States of America, Russia, Japan, China and India.
5.3 Personal information that you publish on our website or submit for publication on our website may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use or misuse of such information by others.
5.4 You expressly agree to the transfers of personal information described in this Section 5.
Retaining personal information
6.1 This Section 6 sets out our data retention policies and procedure, which are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations in relation to the retention and deletion of personal information.
6.2 Personal information that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
6.3 Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section 6, we will retain documents (including electronic documents) containing personal data:
(a) to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
(b) if we believe that the documents may be relevant to any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings; and
(c) in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk).
Security of your personal information
7.1 We will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information.
7.2 We will store all the personal information you provide on our secure (password- and firewall-protected) servers.
7.3 All electronic financial transactions entered into through our website will be protected by encryption technology.
7.4 You acknowledge that the transmission of information over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.
7.5 You are responsible for keeping the password you use for accessing our website confidential; we will not ask you for your password (except when you log in to our website).
Amendments
8.1 We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.
8.2 You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.
8.3 We may notify you of changes to this policy [by email or through the private messaging system on our website.
Your rights
9.1 You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you; provision of such information will be subject to:
(a) the payment of a fee (currently fixed at GBP 10); and
(b) the supply of appropriate evidence of your identity (for this purpose, we will usually accept a photocopy of your passport certified by a solicitor or bank plus an original copy of a utility bill showing your current address).
9.2 We may withhold personal information that you request to the extent permitted by law.
9.3 You may instruct us at any time not to process your personal information for marketing purposes.
9.4 In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal information for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt out of the use of your personal information for marketing purposes.
Third party websites
10.1 Our website includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites.
10.2 We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties.
Updating information
11.1 Please let us know if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.
Part 2: Cookies
About cookies
1.1 A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
1.2 Cookies may be either "persistent" cookies or "session" cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.
1.3 Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.
1.4 Cookies can be used by web servers to identity and track users as they navigate different pages on a website and identify users returning to a website.
Our cookies
2.1 We use only both session and persistent cookies on our website.
2.2 The names of the cookies that we use on our website, and the purposes for which they are used, are set out below:
(a) we use session cookie on our website to recognise a computer when a user visits the website and track users as they navigate the website;
(b) we use secure cookie on our website to prevent fraud and improve the security of the website;
(c) Persistent cookies will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date;
Analytics cookies
3.1 We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website.
3.2 Our analytics service provider generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies.
3.3 The analytics cookies used by our website have the following names: _utma, _utmt, _utmb, _utmc, _utmv and _utmz
3.4 The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website.
3.5 Our analytics service provider's privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.
Third party cookies
4.1 Our website also uses third party cookies.
Blocking cookies
5.1 Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies; for example:
(a) in Internet Explorer (version 10) you can block cookies using the cookie handling override settings available by clicking "Tools", "Internet Options", "Privacy" and then "Advanced";
(b) in Firefox (version 24) you can block all cookies by clicking "Tools", "Options", "Privacy", selecting "Use custom settings for history" from the drop-down menu, and unticking "Accept cookies from sites"; and
(c) in Chrome (version 29), you can block all cookies by accessing the "Customise and control" menu, and clicking "Settings", "Show advanced settings" and "Content settings", and then selecting "Block sites from setting any data" under the "Cookies" heading.
5.2 Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.
5.3 If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.
Deleting cookies
6.1 You can delete cookies already stored on your computer; for example:
(a) in Internet Explorer (version 10), you must manually delete cookie files (you can find instructions for doing so at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278835);
(b) in Firefox (version 24), you can delete cookies by clicking "Tools", "Options" and "Privacy", then selecting "Use custom settings for history", clicking "Show Cookies", and then clicking "Remove All Cookies"; and
(c) in Chrome (version 29), you can delete all cookies by accessing the "Customise and control" menu, and clicking "Settings", "Show advanced settings" and "Clear browsing data", and then selecting "Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data" before clicking "Clear browsing data".
6.2 Deleting cookies will have a negative impact on the usability of many websites.
Cookie preferences
7.1 You can manage your preferences relating to the use of cookies on our website by visiting: controls below
Part 3: Our details
Data protection registration
1.1 We are registered as a data controller with the UK Information Commissioner's Office.
Our details
2.1 This website is owned and operated by Focus Reports Ltd.
2.2 We are registered in England and Wales under registration number 7676770, and our registered office is at Lynton House, 7-12 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9LT, United Kingdom.
2.3 You can contact us by writing to the business address given above, by using our website contact form or by telephone on +441707828754.
Last year ABS Group acquired Safetec. What will this mean for strengthening ABS’ presence in the Nordic region?
Jan Morten Erstaas (JMS): Firstly, it is important to distinguish ABS Group, a consultancy company, from ABS as a classification society. Safetec was acquired by ABS Group. Our two companies are engaged in complementary services to the classification business which is carried out by ABS, the Bureau. We work with both ABS’ clients and companies which do not use ABS.
The logic behind the merger with ABS Group was to bring together two entities with complementary areas of expertise and competence in the risk consultancy business. ABS Group’s ambition in the acquisition was not simply to gain access to the North Sea region, but rather to gain our harsh environment experience.
Safetec has been providing technical, safety and risk consultancy services in Norway for 28 years. We have developed ourselves on the NCS and have been a part of its HSE development. Norway is often viewed as a leader in HSE regulations globally. The Norwegian authorities have a focus on the organizational handling of risk, and Safetec is modeling these organizational models. This knowledge is an export article for our company to international markets. By integrating Safetec within the ABS Group, ABS Group brought the knowledge of these HSE standards into its international operations.
Naturally, ABS Group also gained our international clients. This is a global initiative, and I serve as the CEO of Safetec as well as the Vice-President of offshore oil & gas for ABS Group.
From Safetec’s perspective, ABS Group has a large international presence and this allows us to bring back knowledge gained in other regions into the Norwegian market. ABS Group has been engaged in mature areas outside Norway for decades and can bring its expertise from areas like the Gulf of Mexico to our work here. We also have many projects in Brazil with Petrobras, one of which is assessing the lifecycle of FPSOs. This builds our capacity in integrity and structural analysis relating to lifetime extension and modification, which is becoming an increasingly important area as Norwegian assets head towards their mature phase.
How does ABS as a classification society see its role in Norway?
Egil C. Legland (EL): ABS is providing classification services, which remain entirely separate from the consulting business. Just as ABS Group brings international experience to Safetec, as a classification bureau we can offer our clients in Norway the experience we have acquired from our global operations. Our experience in the Gulf of Mexico since the mid-1950s now heavily informs our work on extending the lifecycle of units in the North Sea, and we have already been involved in several life extension projects in Norway.
Globally, ABS was the first classification company involved in offshore oil and gas, and historically we have been an important driver of this market. ABS has offshore technology centers around the world in places like Newfoundland, Rio de Janeiro, Korea, China and Singapore. Our recent move into Stavanger represents a major step for the company, and we may look to establish a technology centre in Norway.
This is the home market of Norwegian classification company, DNV, how do you differentiate yourselves in this market?
EL: ABS now carries the same level of authority in this market as DNV. We are recognized by the Norwegian flag, allowing us to perform surveys on Norwegian-flagged offshore units. In gaining recognition, our rules were heavily scrutinized by the Norwegian government, our competitors and our clients to determine whether our rules met Norwegian regulations. They were shown to be more than adequate. We gain an advantage by leveraging our global market share and experience.
You mention that the two businesses are separate but complementary. How do you see the relationship among ABS, ABS Group and Safetec?
EL: There is no integration of the class business with the consultancy business. Our business is purely classification and maintaining vessels in accordance with coastal state, flag state and ABS rules and regulations. They are complementary in that when our clients are seeking safety and risk consultancy, they can approach ABS Group as an organization that is well versed in our standards. There is no conflict of interest nor are there occasions where we are approving our own systems.
Many Norwegian companies are bought out by larger American companies. This frequently creates disruption as business cultures clash. What is the risk of disruption through this acquisition?
JMS: ABS Group has made a number of acquisitions over the last year and is growing rapidly – adding more than 700 people to the company during the last year. Safetec contributed 400 to this number. ABS Group also has a presence in 35 countries, with more than 50 percent of its revenue coming from international markets. Therefore ABS Group cannot operate as a solely American company with a uniquely American business culture. It is an international organization.
On 5 January we started the merger process and operated with the mindset of business as usual. We have not physically integrated with ABS Group, and the management of Safetec has been fully maintained. Safetec is an ABS Group company, but we have maintained our brand name and recognition in the market. We are simply looking at how the two companies can benefit from each other’s experiences and methodologies. We are concentrating on how to share knowledge. This collaboration is actually driven by our clients and by the projects in which we are involved rather than by an integration plan.
The Norwegian oil & gas industry is now heading north and into the Arctic, with all the risks that this involves. How do you see the role of your two businesses in this direction?
JMS: The regime of safety created by the PSA is very strict, and this is a challenging market for operators that carry a lot of responsibility. Our focus as consultants is not on handling major incidents but on avoiding them. We have focused our attention on prevention, examining the technical and organizational challenges of this transition to the North to see where we could contribute to accident prevention.
Most of the operators we deal with have a clear understanding of the challenges faced in this region. Operating in more challenging environmental conditions with the cold, the ice and the darkness is something that is well recognized. The preparations for E&P in this region are more intense, and Safetec wants to be a part of the process of making it easier.
EL: From the class side, we will be part of the classification of Norwegian units going forward. The Bureau assesses the integrity of the unit itself, whether it will be producing or drilling. We aim to assist the Operator as to the safety of the unit and we are applying our international expertise to do so. Our Newfoundland technology centre is examining ice management, and our Singapore centre is looking at ice loads. We are well positioned to support this direction in the industry.
What would be your final message?
JMS: At Safetec, we had been looking to be part of a larger company, able to take our North Sea expertise into international markets, and the acquisition provided this
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