After successfully establishing a global journey management center (GJMC) for its operations in the Middle East, an oilfield services company implemented a driving point system that uses real-time data from driver monitoring systems in company vehicles. The system measures driving performance so that the GJMC can quickly provide feedback to drivers and initiate appropriate driving safety actions. This paper describes how the system shares features of driving point programs such as those used by driver licensing authorities in Europe that demerit drivers as a consequence of road traffic offenses. The system developed by the company also includes recognition of drivers who consistently demonstrate safe behavior. In January 2013, every driver in the company's Middle East operations was allocated 12 points in a personal driving account. Any driving offenses are documented and verified in the system, with the driver and their managers receiving notification via a short message service (SMS) text stating the type of driving offense, the number of points lost, and the points remaining. The driver has 72 hours to challenge the decision. After 12 months, the main unsafe driving traits identified by the system have been over speeding, hard acceleration, heavy breaking and driver fatigue. When a driver loses all of the allocated 12 points, the GJMC restricts the person's driving rights of company vehicles until an improvement plan is documented by the driver's manager. Drivers can recover points if they demonstrate adherence to expected driving safety behaviors. Drivers who maintain all of their 12 points during a full year period receive an official recognition letter from their business unit manager. The paper discusses the improvements in several behavior based indicators and the reduction of automotive incidents achieved since the introduction of the driver point system in the 14 countries covered by the company's Middle East GJMC.

Viruses and the potential for pandemics have been a major health concern to public and private sectors around the world recently, especially with the emergence of MERS-CoV, H7N9, and the highly transmittable H10N8.

In the Middle East, there is a gas field that is one of the most challenging gas extraction development projects in the world. The field has a hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) concentration in excess of 20%. The field was discovered over 40 years ago, but due to the absence of appropriate technologies to safely extract the reservoirs, field development had been sidelined for several decades. With the advances in oilfield technologies and processes, the field operator commenced field development a few years back. The operator protects its facilities from H 2 S risk by a comprehensive air management process that uses leading industry gas monitoring and protection systems. During the project design phase, the emphasis focused on fixed facilities and protection at these facilities. However, the possibility of an unexpected gas release and exposure in areas away from the fixed facilities and while in transit within the field soon became apparent. The challenge was to provide for the safety of personnel from the time they entered the field to the time they exited it. An oilfield services company identified the potential risk that possible H 2 S exposure represented to the safety of personnel while in transit through this field. To address the challenge, the company sought the help of an innovative safety solutions provider. After a series of discussions between the safety solutions provider and the oilfield services company, it became apparent that there was a need to develop a solution that would provide early-warning gas detection while on the move, ensure immediate availability of breathing air protection, and allow communication and documentation of hazards and air status within a crew transportation vehicle. The resulting solution was a vehicle gas protection system (VGPS) with an integrated gas detection system and a proprietary breathing air management system that enables users to transit safely through such terrain.

Land transport accidents and driving safety have been widely discussed in industry studies, articles, conferences and meetings. Despite significant investment in driving safety initiatives, an oilfield services company had reached a plateau in its indicators of the severity and number of its automotive accidents. Driving continues to be the activity with the highest associated risk in the company. The same challenge is experienced among the entire oil and gas industry. The authors believe that preventive programs have, in general, a top-down approach in which drivers are a passive factor—often rather limited in their receipt of instruction and feedback on their driving skills. This paper describes a case study from the Middle East of a project applied to the operations of a global integrated oilfield services company, which aims to set a new level of driving safety performance through a vision: that drivers behave because they believe. A key element for making this vision a reality is the implementation of a centralized Journey Management Center (JMC) with specialist hardware, application software, telecommunications technology, and multilingual staff who manage land transport activities in multiple countries with a diversity of risk environments. The JMC works hand-in-hand with local management to provide practical risk assessments before a journey starts, track journeys in real time, apply on-time positive and formative interventions, and supply managers with comprehensive reports that they can use to understand the behavior of their drivers, and provide recognition and coaching to them in response to their performance. The system encourages a humanized approach in which drivers feel the company cares about them, and they value the program because they acknowledge it is good for their personal lives. The case study details major factors for success in terms of process, technology and—most importantly—people. It describes the results, after more than a year of operations, using proactive and lagging indicators. A highlight of these results is a 30% reduction in the frequency and severity of automotive crashes.