Bapco, being the first company in the Kingdom of Bahrain to establish a safety centre, has emerged as a safety benchmark in the industrial sector, the Minister Energy said.
Dr Abdul Hussein bin Ali Mirza, Minister of Energy, who was chief guest at Bapco’s 2011 Safety Award Presentation Ceremony, said that Bapco has achieved many accolades in the safety arena.
“We are celebrating the 50 years of annual Safety Awards ceremony as environment, health and safety continue to be cornerstone of the success of Bapco as a national oil company in the country,” Dr Mirza added.
Under the Patronage of his Excellency Dr A Hussain bin Ali Mirza, Minister of Energy and the Chairman of Bapco Board of Directors held its annual Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Awards presentations to the winning Bapco Departments and Contractors at Bapco Club on 22nd March, 2012. The event was attended by more than 250 Company and Contractor employees. A speech was given by His Excellency Dr. Mirza and a detailed presentation was given by Gordon Smith, Bapco’s Chief Executive and former EHS Committee Chairman.
HE the Minister of Energy gave a brief speech in which he said: It gives me great pleasure to be with you here today at this important event which is being held to celebrate your EHS achievements in 2011 and to recognize the winning Departments and Contractors. This event is close to my heart because we at Bapco sincerely care about the health and safety of our employees, contractors and surrounding communities and we have invested heavily to ensure that we provide a safe, healthy work environment. We will continue to Strive for Excellence by adopting industry best practices, the latest systems and processes to ensure the reliability and efficiency of our facilities and that they are operated in compliance to local and international environmental, health and safety best practices and requirements”.
Gordon Smith gave an insight into Bapco’s EHS policy and emphasized the importance of safety culture to the survival of any business, especially in the Petroleum and Petrochemical Industry.
He explained the many Environment, Health and Safety initiatives that were undertaken in the last five years which contributed directly to the reduction of EHS related incidents and to the establishment of a safer working environment.
“The culture we created” he said, “enabled us to ensure that our employees and contractors go home back to their families’ everyday safe and without suffering injuries.”
“When we compare our Safety performance with our peers we find that Bapco performance is amongst the best performers in the Oil and Gas industry. As a company we were able in 2011 to achieve several milestones including the achievement of 3 Million employee-Hours by Bapco and Contractor employees, worked without a lost time injury. In December 2011, the Lube Base Oil (LBO) Project achieved 10 Million Employee Hours without a single Lost Time Injury (LTI), a remarkable achievement by any standard and one that we are all very proud of. The construction phase of this Project involved potentially hazardous and complex activities such as lifting, confined space entry and tie-ins to existing systems. Despite these challenges, the LBO Project entire team worked coherently and with dedication to reach this wonderful milestone. The overriding principle of care to employees, contractors and all stakeholders was diligently applied at all times. Bapco’s workforce and third-party contractors continue to work hard ensure a safe and healthy working environment for all, as the Company’s rigorously embedded EHS culture paid further dividends.”
Oil Storage and Export Department of Refining Division, completed 2011 without any injuries. They had zero LTI, NLTI and First Aids injuries. This is a tremendous achievement for a Risk Category 1 Department, and is a reflection of living Bapco’s EHS culture and values. Bapco’s engineering and major engineering projects divisions operating in Risk Category 2 recorded totally injury-free years during 2011, the first since 2005.
These outstanding milestones were achieved against a background of one of the biggest shutdowns in the Company’s history in early 2011, with associated operational challenges. The HUB 1 T&I team worked diligently for 56 days and achieved over 1 million employee/contractor-hours without any LTI and NLTI.
Closely aligned with its well established Four Keys to Safety campaign and to further entrench health and safety issues amongst all employees, Bapco rolled out the ‘Osool Bapco’ which sets out 10 guidelines and practices to be followed by employees at their work place. Rollout was followed by a vigorous company-wide publicity campaign to raise awareness among employees. To support Osool Bapco, a team was assigned to propagate Bapco’s Operational Excellence Management System (OEMS) – which aims to improve process performance and sustain world class performance effectively across the Bapco businesses.
Gordon Smith also announced the winners of Shareholders Awards.
Individual winners were Ashraf Al Khayat from Bapco Local Marketing and the contractor winner was Antony P. Jerome (MCSC). This award is given to individuals or groups who are safety conscious, proactive, live Bapco safety values and continuously seek ways to improve their working environment.
Shutdown and Major Maintenance Department were the Winners of the Shareholders award.
He later announced the Annual Safety Award winners.
In the high risk category of the Bapco Department Awards, the winner was Oil Storage & Export Department, the Plant Engineering Department won the Medium Category and low risk category award was won by Information Technology Department
The winner of the large contractor group was Project Construction Company, while the Juma Abd Mohamed & Sons Co won the small contractor group.
EHS Committee chairman highlighted the Company Key improvement focus in 2012 and they included.
“We should all be proud to be working for a company that can boast about its safety records which ranks with the best in both regional and international oil companies and I feel confident that we collectively can sustain our current success and go on to accomplish further milestones,” he said. He concluded his presentation by congratulating the EHS Committee and Contractor Safety Committee on their leadership of the various H&S programmes and on behalf of Bapco Management thanked both committees for their hard work and dedication to safety during 2011 and he also extended his thanks to all Bapco and Contractor employees. “I am certain that, with the effective leadership given by Management, the commitment of the two committees and the positive safety culture we created, we will continue to strive for new levels of safety performance.”