Steinar, Graeme Thomas, and Barbro would like to wish you all a happy New Year. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and we wish everyone a great and positive SAFE 2026.

As we move into 2026, we would like to remind everyone that, first and foremost, we are colleagues. No matter which union we belong to, we work together and support one another. We also hope the new year will bring better and closer cooperation between the clubs.

With that in mind, we wish you all a SAFE, successful, and rewarding 2026.

Upcoming Board Election

We will be starting the year with an election, with Thomas and Barbro standing for re-election. Voting will take place from 1 January to 10 January.

We already have one additional candidate confirmed, Frank Bräuner, and any members who would like to stand must submit their name in writing by midnight on 31 December.

As per our club rules, each member will have two votes.

Ongoing Promotion

Our promotion is still running until the end of January. New members can choose to receive AirPods Pro 3 or a NOK 3,000 voucher.

Existing members who recruit a new member will also be entered into a draw for the same prize.

Year in Review – SAFE I Noble

It’s been a busy year for SAFE I Noble! We kicked things off in January with the board unanimously agreeing to appoint Steinar as our club leader. We also updated our club rules to set a maximum of two 4-year terms for this role and confirmed the two-votes-per-member rule.

Over the year, Steinar has really dived in—attending tariff meetings with Thomas, getting to know how SAFE works, and bringing his well-known work ethic to the club. He’s made some great changes and has taken on hosting our monthly meetings with the company and handling cases.

Now, Steinar is fully up to speed with everything going on in the club, and we’re looking forward to building on this momentum in the year ahead!

Our membership continues to grow, and we’re now planning for when we’ll have a full-time presence onshore. Up until now, sharing the workload has worked well, but we always knew the time would come to have someone dedicated full-time.

Steinar is taking the lead on planning how this will work, with rig visits as his top priority. He wants to be a very visible leader, getting out to see the different crews. We’re still figuring out the best setup onshore, but it will likely involve splitting time between offshore, the SAFE House, and the Noble office.

Challenges – We’ve faced quite a few challenges this past year, and it’s fair to say that at times we haven’t been the most popular with the office—and the feeling has occasionally been mutual. We take this as a sign that we’re doing our job for our members, especially when management sees us as a significant challenge.

Although most of our cases were successfully resolved, some remain open, and we anticipate significant challenges ahead in 2026. Valuable lessons have been learned, but there is still much to be done. Key challenges include ongoing six-week contracts, the relief pool, loss of license support, AMU, VO organizations, private health coverage challenges, and managing long-term sickness and return-to-work cases. Helicopters still are high on the agenda and will be for the foreseeable future. We are committed to tackling these issues and continuing to support our members as effectively as possible.

We also have the intake of Interceptor returning to Norway, and we’ve already begun discussions with the company regarding crewing. It’s scheduled to arrive in Bergen for a yard stay in March, with a few months of work on the spud cans to start with, before moving on to the hotel contract and, hopefully, additional contracts after that.

As a further reminder, we have seen over the past year the critical importance of having a BankID. This is vital in the event of an accident, as it provides access to necessary documents for insurance purposes. All non-Norwegian members are strongly encouraged to arrange this if they have not already done so. We can assist—please get in touch if you need help.

We also have the main negotiation scheduled for 2026, and the process has already begun. All SAFE clubs have submitted proposals outlining the changes they would like to see in the main agreement. These proposals will be discussed collectively among the clubs in SAFE, combined where appropriate, and refined until we reach a single agreed position to take forward into negotiations.

Finally, we would like to thank all our members for their continued trust, engagement, and support. SAFE I Noble is only as strong as its members, and it is your involvement that allows us to stand up for better conditions, stronger cooperation, and a safer workplace for everyone.

To those who are not yet members, we encourage you to consider joining SAFE in 2026 and becoming part of a united, supportive, and proactive community.

We wish you all a SAFE, healthy, and successful New Year, and we look forward to working together to make 2026 a strong and positive year for SAFE I Noble and its members.