Achieving Health Safety and Environment Targets under Diverse Workforce: An Experience of a Major Oil & Gas Company in the Gulf Region

The petroleum industry is an essential element of the Gulf Region and it is vital importance for the health and welfare of the region. By considering the hazardous nature of oil & gas projects / plants, Gulf Countries have promulgated various legislations on health, safety & environment protection and is in the process of its strict enforcement. The Oil & Gas industry operations mainly comprises exploration, development, production of crude oil and its refining involving various operations including drilling, processing, transport and refining. At each stage of activity, companies in the Gulf region engage huge number of Contractors for their Operations and timely execution of Projects. The paper discusses the experience of Kuwait Oil Company in conducting its operations under multi cultural diverse workforce. Kuwait Oil Company is the premier Oil & Gas Company in the Gulf region involved in exploration and production of oil & gas reserves. The company engages number of contractors, who in turn employs workforce from more than 65 countries around the World. The workforce are highly diverse in nature and comes with different background, different languages, different skill set. The Company has established the HSE Management System and procedures based on the international regulations to focus on the health, safety of workers and environment protection. It is altogether, a big challenge for the Company to achieve HSE (Health Safety & Environment) targets. The Company adopts variety of methods in implementing the HSE Management by involving this diverse workforce. I am involved in this process and played a key role. The presentation will share Company experience in achieving HSE targets under diverse workforce. This is part of the best practices sharing among the global HSE community.