Turning Incidents into Insights: How Kosmos Energy is Reducing Major Accident Risks Through ITIP

At Kosmos Energy, we believe every incident — no matter how small — carries with it an opportunity to learn, adapt, and strengthen our defenses against Major Accident Risks (MAR). That belief is the driving force behind our Incidents to Insights Platform (ITIP), a cornerstone of our process safety strategy that is transforming how we capture, share, and act on high-value lessons across organizational boundaries.

As such, The Center for Offshore Safety (COS) honored Kosmos Energy with its 2025 Safety Leadership Award at the 13th Annual COS Forum, held September 17 in Houston. Kosmos’ winning initiative demonstrates excellence and creates a framework for continuous safety improvement. The COS recognized Kosmos’ innovative programs that also strengthen the safety culture of the company’s operations.

The Spark That Launched ITIP

In 2024, a contracted vessel experienced a spontaneous rupture of a nitrogen cylinder. Although the event was contained at the time, it carried serious Major Accident Risk implications.

The incident underlined a gap in how organizations — across the industry — share learning from high-consequence, low-frequency incidents. Too often, insights remain siloed within a single company, or are shared inconsistently, limiting their value in preventing recurrence. Kosmos recognized the need for a structured, transparent, and scalable approach to learning from such incidents. ITIP was born from that need.

Building a Structured Approach to Learning

ITIP is fully integrated into the Kosmos HSE Management System, ensuring process safety incidents are analyzed and shared in a way that is:

• Repeatable and consistent: A standardized format allows insights to be applicable across different teams, assets, and companies.
• Rich and comprehensive: Each review goes beyond “what happened” to also address “why it happened,” “what was learned,” and the key questions others should ask in their own operations.
• Inclusive and cross-functional: Quarterly reviews bring together everyone from technicians on the front line to senior executives, ensuring diverse perspectives inform the lessons learned.

The goal is clear: to create the richest possible understanding of events and make those learnings actionable for the broadest possible audience.

Turning Learning into Action

The ITIP process doesn’t stop at analysis; it drives real, tangible improvements:

• Prevention of recurrence inside Kosmos: For example, the nitrogen cylinder event led to updated inspection and storage practices across our operations.
• High-impact external sharing: ITIP insights have already been shared with over 40 organizations and regulators, extending the value of learning far beyond Kosmos. We have had feedback from several offshore company saying they have improved their own handling, inspection and storage practices.
• Application in critical moments: One recent example saw ITIP insights applied during a partner’s high-risk turnaround activity. Applied in tandem with the partner’s own safety system resulted in a zero incident and successful turnaround.

By applying ITIP learnings across companies and regulators, Kosmos is helping raise the bar for the entire industry.

Culture, Trust, and Collaboration

At its core, ITIP is about more than processes, it’s about building a culture of openness, credibility, and trust. By committing to early sharing and transparency, Kosmos fosters collaboration through industry workgroups and partnerships. This ensures MAR-focused learnings reach the places where they can have the most impact.

Looking Ahead

The ITIP journey is ongoing. We continue to refine the structure of our reviews, expand opportunities for collaboration, and share broadly with partners and industry peers. Every improvement strengthens not only our operations but the safety of offshore energy performance as a whole.

At Kosmos Energy, we are committed to turning incidents into actionable insights — protecting people, assets, and the environment by reducing the risks that matter most.