A risky business

Budget cuts and untrained contractors are just two of the challenges faced by Qatar Petroleum’s Senior Health and Safety Engineer Zaher Ataya. Diana Milne reports.

“We have had to stop some of the projects and prioritise just the work that is required to produce the oil”
-Zaher Ataya

As investment in upgrading aging infrastructures grinds to a halt, health and safety departments of the region’s oil companies are entering dangerous territories. Faced with increasing pressures to meet targets to eradicate workplace deaths and injuries, they are also becoming constrained by shrinking budgets in the face of the economic downturn. It’s a situation Qatar Petroleum Senior Health and Safety Engineer Zaher Ataya knows all too well.  “The financial crisis is one of the major challenges we face now. Because of this budgets are shrinking and you don’t have as much room to improve or to do what you want.”
Ataya says shrinking budgets are affecting training and recruitment, but in particular the department’s ability to facilitate the modifying of equipment in line with health and safety standards: “Equipment itself and modification is particularly affected, particularly when it comes to modifying a facility which was built 35 years ago. In that situation companies want to upgrade the facility especially for HSE. But you come to a point where that may not be possible.” He goes on to say that Qatar Petroleum has even been forced to cancel or put on hold some projects: “We have had to stop some of the projects and prioritize just the work that is require to produce the oil. When the oil prices went up to US$150 a barrel there was so much recruitment and new projects. But oil and gas has really been affected (by the fall in oil prices).”

Proactive measures
There is however, a more positive side to the credit crunch for Qatar Petroleum’s health and safety department, jokes Ataya, who says one advantage is that because of project delays he and his staff are under less pressure to meet multiple health and safety quotas: “The only positive now is that there are not so many projects so not so many quotas.”

This temporary lifting of the pressure also relieves Ataya and his team of one of the biggest challenges it faces; the risks posed by employing contractors that are not always trained to work to the company’s HSE standards: “In terms of safety the biggest challenge we face is management of contractors – especially an unskilled workforce that you bring in for a short period to work on a project. Then you expect to have these safety incidents because these people are not really trained and we don’t have the time to train them. This is one of the major challenges.” To tackle the problem, he says Qatar Petroleum is working on several initiatives, including providing incentives for contractors that practice proper health and safety standards and selecting contractors on the basis of their HSE practices: “The company has actually looked to many programmes and ways to encourage contractors, such as setting bonuses and incentives. It is trying as much as it can to audit and inspect contractors to try to push these companies to properly train their people.”

A growing concern
Ensuring contractors adhere to its standards is all the more important given Qatar Petroleum’s commitment to raise HSE standards across the board within the organisation, as the company embarks on an ambitious expansion strategy. In 2007 the company announced plans to invest up to US$20 billion in oversees investment including a US$7 billion refinery in Panama. It also signed an agreement with the Tunisian government to establish a US$2 billion oil refinery in the country with a capacity of 150,000 barrels. It later committed to building two LNG receiving terminals in Texas at a cost of US$2.2billion and in Italy where it will own a 45 percent stake alongside Exxon Mobil and Addison.

As well as downstream activities it is involved in several high profile infrastructure projects, including the construction of one of the region’s largest water and power plants, the US$3.9 billion Ras Girtas development on Ras Laffan, alongside Qatar Electricity and Water Company, GDS Suez of France, Mitsui Corporation of Japan, Chubu Corporation of Japan and Shikoku Corporation of Japan. Earlier this year the company revealed plans to set up a consortium with the sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority, which would see it invest in energy projects outside the Middle East and also make further downstream investments.   These developments and partnerships with international organisations heighten the need for Qatar Petroleum to ensure it has world-class HSE standards in place.

Joined up thinking
To create a more coherent HSE policy, Qatar Petroleum recently consolidated HSE activities across its various departments and it has now established a direct line of contact between corporate HSE and the Qatari Minister of Energy and Industry, HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiayah. This, says Ataya, has enabled it to more swiftly put into practice new HSE policies within the organisaton: “The benefit of this is empowerment. The management commitment to HSE means it is easier to push things through. We’re not obstructed. The HSE message comes through loud and clear. If we didn’t report directly to him the message might not reach that level.”

One of the reasons why the minister wanted to establish stronger links with Qatar Petroleum’s HSE department was so that the company could be used as an example to others in the setting of health and safety standards, reveals Ataya: “Qatar Petroleum is actually leading the way for industries in Qatar and helping to set the standards and act as a regulator.” One of its biggest responsibilities, in this regard, is to encourage energy companies to minimise their impact on the environment. It has set itself targets, including achieving zero gas flaring, maximise the use of energy to produce clean safe energy sources and become a leader in sustainable development in the region. One of its most important achievements is the setting up of a department which deals solely with responding to oil spills in the area and which has five oil spill response bases across the area.

Ataya says Qatar Petroleum is also involved in joint research ventures with IOCs such as Shell to carry out environmental impact assessments. “The environment has been a big concern to the company. The effort it will put into this is unlimited.” In terms of partnerships it has also recently signed an agreement with IGTC-Chubb Fire for the maintenance and repair of portable fire extinguishers at Ras Laffan Industrial City. Under the terms of the agreement, IGTC-Chubb Fire Qatar will supply all labour, supervision and tools for the maintenance and repair of the extinguishers and will provide inspection certificates for all the work that is carried out.

Qatar Petroleum’s expansion plans and its close working relationship with the Qatari authorities means health and safety is higher on the agenda for the company than ever before. But heightened expectations combined with shrinking budgets mean this is a truly challenging time for Zaher Ataya and his team.