A Lloyd’s Register Energy survey of attendees at OTC 2015 in Houston revealed that more than 36% of respondents consider a shortage of skills and knowledge to be the primary issue in approaches to safety, performance and technical innovation as companies work to secure the global energy supply, a press release said May 7.

Other issues respondents considered important to sustainable energy security were the regulatory environment (21%), commercial barriers to collaboration on innovation (17%), aging assets (12%) and inability to adopt technology (14%).

Other challenges facing the industry include a continued focus on increasing safety in deepwater exploration, floating LNG, development of cleaner and more efficient hydrocarbon technology and the need for more work on new forms of energy provision.

U.K.-based Lloyd’s Register Energy identified three short-term priorities the industry must address if future oil and gas assets are to be safely and reliably exploited.

--Striking the balance between safety critical issues and operational pressures

--Making maintenance a priority so that safety critical areas are not ignored

--Ensuring competence through skills, technology and innovation.