estate. When the Bapco refinery was being built back in the early 1930s, we just drew a line in the sand and claimed a “Leased Area” large enough to minimise impact of our operations on nearby communities. Bahrain is a very small island and we no longer have the luxury of using space as a risk mitigation measure. O&G. In line with best practice, BAPCO has created an EHS policy that integrates the functions of occupational health, industrial safety and environment. Can you tell us more about this? AS. Bapco is fully committed towards the protection of the environment, the health and safety of its employees, contractors and the surrounding community as stated in its EHS Policy and guidelines. Bapco also recognises the importance of minimising the environmental impact associated with all its operations and sound environmental management forms an integral part of its business philosophy. When someone asks me how many safety officers there are in Bapco, my answer is the entire workforce; i.e. about 3200. In line with best practices, we have embarked on a new initiative called Behaviour Based Safety. BBS is designed to ensure involvement
in H&S matters by all employees and contractors. The programme implementation commenced in November 2006 and will be completed by end of 2009. The Industrial Safety Committee (ISC) launched Behaviour Observation Obtains Safe Trends (BOOST) processes across the company in the first quarter of 2007. The process is expected to take 24 months to fully mature and has the following objectives: • Reduce exposure to injuries • Increase engagement of all employees in safety • Move to a more proactive safety approach with upstream measures • Improve safety behaviour, attitudes, conditions, culture and systems In response to Bahrain Ministerial Order No.10 in 1999 (based on Amiri Decree No.21 with respect to the environment in 1996), which prescribed limits for emissions to air and discharges to water, Bapco carried out a review of its compliance status with the legislation and identified the gaps between the current performance and the requirements of the legislation. A comprehensive environmental compliance plan and programme was agreed with the Government General Directorate of Environment and
124
Wildlife Protection (EWP). These projects were included in Bapco’s Strategic Investment Program. O&G. BAPCO is one of the founding members of RESCO (Regional Clean Sea Organisation) and the company is an expert in oil spill response. Do enough oil and gas companies take these safety issues seriously? AS. All the regional major NOCs from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Iran and Bahrain, including Saudi Chevron, are members of RECSO. A major membership drive is in place requesting all the national tanker companies of the region to join. Bapco takes its responsibilities very seriously in this matter. Bapco recently signed a five-year alliance mobilisation agreement with the world’s largest international oil spill response organisation, OSRL/EARL (Oil Spill Response Limited and East Asia Response Limited). Bapco wants to ensure that it has the very best protection for the Kingdom of Bahrain and its territorial waters because of the high risk posed due to heavy shipping of crude oil and products in the Gulf region. It is vital that response time to an oil spill is within the first two to four hours otherwise it becomes difficult to combat a spill effectively. The key to RECSO’s success is and will be “mutual co-operation”. We all recognise the mammoth challenge before us in view of the sheer volumes of barrels being transported from the region day in day out. The governmental environment agencies have an equally significant role to play in this matter. This is why RECSO must maintain an effective working relationship with another organisation; namely the Regional Organisation for the Protection of Marine Environment (ROPME) and its marine wing, the Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Centre (MEMAC). In my view co-operation and mutual aid in combating oil spills and the clean-up operations that follow are extremely important. But more important are the oil spill prevention efforts. One key area in this is sharing by tanker companies of past performance information. The Lloyds List therefore provides vital information to port authorities in this respect. Operators with sub-standard or defective vessels can be identified and remedial measures can be implemented to safeguard the Gulf. Bapco has developed a comprehensive oil spill contingency plan. It is company policy that any pollution incident at sea or land that might get linked to its facilities and operations will be promptly addressed, the first priority in all cases being to prevent the pollution from happening in the first place. However in the event of an incident, a comprehensive oil spill contingency plan has been put in place to mitigate the consequences on the environment at sea or land. In addition a number of marine assessment studies have been carried out to assess the coastal ecosystem of the Bapco Refinery over the last 21 years by well known Swedish experts from the universities of Stockholm and Kalmar. The previous assessments have indicated a significant improvement in the quality of the effluent outfall from the refinery. The last assessment was carried out in April 2007.
www.ngoilgasmena.com
Bapco.indd Sec1:124
14/1/09 13:10:17