Abdulrahman Al Jawahery, President of the GPIC in a statement said that a befitting comment on the safety, health and environment conditions at the plant was made by Queen Margaret the II of Denmark on her visit to the plant. “I thought I was going to see a garden in a petrochemical complex, but what I saw is a petrochemical complex in a garden.”
“GPIC remains the first and the only company outside Europe and North America to win these prestigious accolades,” he said.
Awarding the Robert W Campbell award and also the Sir George’s award from Brospa in the UK, the jury cited GPIC’s initiative in safety and environmental concerns as going beyond the legislative requirement, beyond the standards, said the general manager. “It is a self initiative to venture out and extend a hand to the public and the people and care about them,” he added.
“GPIC is the only petrochemical plant in the world to receive the Nobel and the Oscars of the safety. This is not a chance happening, but it shows that the shareholders, the board of directors, executive management, labour union, employees and the contractors are working in a harmonious blend to reach a standard setting level.”
“All these awards and citations are cumulative effect of efforts put in by the employees,” said the President.
He said that the RoSPA and Campbell awards came after scrutiny on safety at work, systems and procedures in place and how tight they are. The employees were interviewed to ensure that the procedures were practices and not just steps. The judges then went on a site visit and met the labour union. Thereafter they audited the procedures and looked for compliance in improving the system and also the knowledge sharing.
“The judges checked for the procedures, to see if it was sustainable or individual based,” said Al Jawahery. “Auditing of the equipment quality was also done, in addition to the programmes initiated for the employees. They went through the club to see the investment made on employees and their families,” he added.
After these checks and audits, they came up with the report, he said, that one doesn’t need to be big in size to be the best, but you can be a company in a very harsh environment — in a desert in the Middle East and still excel.
“The sustainability of the safety practices is best reflected in the manual for contractors which translated into about 12 languages including 16 Indian dialects. Every employee or contractor can thus understand the requirements,” he added.
“The significance of RoSPA lies in the patron of the body instituting the award — Her Majesty the Queen of England is the patron of the RoSPA and Lord Jordan one of the key players in the labour workforce. They are dedicated to promoting safety, health and environment.”
“The Robert W Campbell award from the USA is equally important because it’s the safety award earlier won by Dow Chemicals, Exxon Mobil, United Technologies, companies that are worth between $50 billion and $200 billion on the stock exchange and 60,000 to 70,000 employees worldwide,” he added.
“When you reach such levels then it is evident that one is on the right track – that we give value to human beings, to our employees, we care about them, their families. So we concentrate on education, on providing them with knowledge and information and training to make them better people. Better person makes a better employee,” Al Jawahery, said.
“A safe employee is one who knows his wife at home is safe and healthy and lives in an environment that she can continue to survive in. A good employee, however, is one who knows that his child is safe and well looked after, is healthy. Such an employee becomes productive, said Al Jawahery,” he added.
“Sports are a key feature of our programme because healthy person becomes a healthy person is a healthy employee,” he said.
“The 2011 will represent the most profitable year for GPIC. The directors and shareholders would want to see their facilities being looked after. The invested $150 million in the plant and that same plant is now worth over $4 billion,” he added. In addition $1.35 billion cash dividends have been paid out,” he said. Such rewards would not be possible without investment in developing people and safe technologies, he added.
“For example they invested $50 million in carbon dioxide recovery unit. The plant, recovering 450 tonne of carbon dioxide per day, is the largest single unit in the Middle East to be commissioned and in operation,” the GPIC President, said.
“We have returned on investment on that which was an environmental project when we presented it to the board.”
The concept was that the carbon dioxide be taken and injected it into the processes to increase the capacity by 8 per cent. Today the Return on Investment (RoI) on that $50 million has been 35 per cent. No project will give a 35 per cent RoI and be an environmentally friendly project and a role model, he added.
“The carbon recovery project won the International Middle East award for the best environmental project implemented in 2011,” Al Jawaheri, said.
He said that the contractor – Italian Indian Technomonte’ — called to say that the same project has been awarded the best environmental project executed, by the Indian government, in that country. “It is thus such initiatives that cumulatively make an organization scale heights irrespective of its size, become a role model of all the industry worldwide.”
“We are proud that our relations with the media and our colleagues, other industries in Bahrain, with ministry of education, with the societies, the NGOs, are such that allows us to promote GPIC’s vision in going beyond excellence. Today that is our motto,” he said.
“The GPIC is the first facility in the Middle East to have online monitors on all its stacks and these are connected with the environmental affairs directorate at the Public Commission for Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife. Therefore it is not what we say, but every movement of process operation and release at the GPIC is reflected immediately in the monitoring rooms of the commission,” he added.