Experts
Keep it Simple
What keeps you awake at night when thinking of HSE in PDO?
The thought of failure. The consequences of getting it wrong are so devastating: people’s lives can be lost; people can be disabled so they will never work again; or our installations could catch fire meaning we cannot provide the necessary revenue for our glorious country. People sometimes say that PDO goes over the top when it comes to HSE but I say you can never go too far when people can die so easily in such a high-risk industry. For PDO, safety is the bedrock of everything we do, but our incidents, and what we identify from them, show that we still have a long way to go in fully protecting our people and preventing harm to the environment from our business risks. The thought of those people who are no longer here and their families that have lost their loved ones, and often their bread winner: that is what drives me and causes me to lose sleep.
If you could ask everyone reading this to make one change in their lives, what would it be?
Only one? But there are so many! If you restrict me just to one, then it would have to be to ensure that you, and everyone who you are with whilst in a vehicle, always wear a seatbelt. It is the one device in modern society that has saved more lives than anything else, but it only works and helps in keeping you in this world and with your family if you choose to wear it. I know there are a multitude of reasons why people don’t want to wear a seatbelt but the one reason to wear it is so powerful that I still find it hard to see why we lose so many people on our roads.
How has your previous experience within operations as a Delivery Team Leader helped you in being successful in your current role?
It has been very useful as I view every issue from the perspective of our operations and of our contractors. It is important to be able to have empathy in identifying solutions to issues. It has also driven me to engage with our work colleagues and to ask their opinions and ideas, as they are often the ones with the best solutions. I have been told by some that I hold too many forums and working parties, but to my mind they are essential in giving everyone at every level a voice, as is being in the Interior operations listening to what people have to say.
What is the most important aspect of HSE in your opinion?
Most believe that safety is the most important, and it is certainly an overarching priority for PDO, but personally I don’t believe it is useful to compare the priorities of health, safety and environment. Yes, fatalities are high profile and we read about them in the news; however, many people suffer from chronic ill health that may be attributed to their work. For example, a bad posture sitting at a desk can plague a person with backache for many years, particularly when they are older.
Then we have to consider what life on Earth would be like if we did not look after our planet’s health and its resources. We have a moral responsibility to protect the planet as it’s the place that we all call ‘home’. That’s why I view our environmental projects with such enthusiasm as they all add so much value and focus our moral compass. The environment is probably the least well-known aspect of HSE, but definitely, its importance cannot be overstated.
How would you describe PDO’s focus on HSE within its activities?
I am proud to work in an organization that has such a dedication to HSE. We are lucky to be led by a Managing Director, Raoul Restucci, with such a passion and a hands-on approach to HSE. He is my line manager and I have learnt so much from him and his philosophy of managing such a difficult subject.
Of course, we still have a long way to go, and it is not a subject that you can relax and take time out from. The risks are there all of the time and they never take a rest. Complacency is our biggest danger and we need to be mindful of it always.
What is your opinion on how PDO is managing ‘Process Safety’, and what needs to be done to reduce the number of process incidents?
Process Safety is still not particularly well understood, despite all of the initiatives that PDO has undertaken to improve awareness and understanding of the subject. The importance of managing Asset Integrity and Process Safety correctly cannot be overstated. If we cannot keep our hydrocarbons within our process vessels then we will face major process incidents. In 2014, we suffered 22 of these major incidents and we need to arrest this increase and then reverse it to ensure our process is safe and our production for the Government is not compromised through the loss of a key installation.
You now look after the medical side of the business. How successful has PDO been in addressing the medical needs of the people?
The PDO medical team is doing a great job. In their profession, they do not get a lot of thanks or appreciation for what they achieve but they make such a difference to so many people. I have the utmost respect for them and the work that they do. The medical team will soon enjoy new facilities outside of the Mina Al Fahal gates, which will be a tremendous step forward for PDO. They have also conducted many health campaigns, which have benefited thousands of our staff and contractors.
How would you describe the strategic HSE vision in one sentence?
It has to be: ‘Simplifying our systems so that they work for those most at risk, so they make sense, are achievable and can be easily complied with.’
What is the biggest obstacle to HSE for PDO?
Complacency has to be our biggest barrier to success. If a team has not suffered an incident for a while, then they begin to wonder why complying with the rules is so important as it takes so much effort. That’s when incidents occur.
The same argument can be made about our growing Local Community Contractor community; they can easily become complacent because they have not been exposed to the hazards before and felt their effects.
Many of our Lost Time Injuries this year have resulted not from our high-risk facilities but from low-risk environments and low-risk activities, like crossing the road and slipping on the kerb.
What do you say to those cynics that say that ‘Goal Zero’ – no harm to people and the environment – is an unattainable goal and we should be more realistic?
There will always be those with a more cynical side, but we have already achieved ‘Goal Zero’ in many contracts and in many departments, so of course it is achievable. The key is to make it achievable in every operation, every activity, and every contract and in every project. That is the challenge. Can we do it? I believe with enough willpower, enough compliance, keeping to our Golden and the Life Saving rules, yes we can, and indeed we will.
What are the key game changers if you are to eliminate incidents?
Game changers? Wow, that’s a difficult one…. I strongly believe we need to have a strong focus on welfare. If we do not look after our people’s welfare then the HSE message will fall on deaf ears. We then need to ensure our workforce is competent in the work that we ask them to do. We need to ensure the equipment and tools that they use are fit for use, appropriate for the task and well maintained. We need to ensure that the risk of the work has been assessed and controls have been implemented so it is a safe working environment. We need to ensure everyone knows what they should be doing, that they are properly supervised and that they intervene when they see something wrong.
In short, they need to always comply, intervene and respect each other and the rules, including our 12 Life Saving Rules. These have saved many lives and continue to be one of the strongest influencers in keeping our people alive.
Can you tell us about your ‘Tell A Friend’ campaign?
‘Tell A Friend’ is a campaign on road safety initiated by PDO two years ago. The campaign is in partnership with the Royal Oman Police to raise awareness of safe driving in Oman. The campaign focuses in particular on young drivers in an effort to change their driving behaviours so they act more safely on the roads, obey the law, respect other people and maintain their vehicles properly. The campaign is led by Munira Al Balushi, PDO’s HSE Communication Adviser.
The campaign has around 20 active volunteers from and outside of PDO. We launched it by participating in the 2013 Muscat Festival where around 5,000 people visited the ‘Tell A Friend’ booth. In the same year, campaign volunteers participated in the Salalah Tourism Festival and the campaign attracted interest from people from other countries.
In 2014, the campaign focused on women’s associations, and awareness sessions were staged in Khasab, Nizwa and Ibri, attracting around 700 people in total.
This year, the campaign has been focusing on the communities around PDO’s concession area and two sessions were conducted in the wilayats of Shaleem and Al Jazir. We will conduct two further sessions in the North of Rules Oman around the Fahud and Qarn Alam areas.
The campaign has a strong presence on social media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and we have also used traditional media such as broadcast and newspaper interviews and radio ads.
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