Last week more than 30 contractors attended a workshop organised by Oman Oil Marketing Company SAOG (OOMCO) and pledged to work with them in a combined effort to achieve and sustain their HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) goals. The day long “Contractor’s HSE Workshop”, organised by OOMCO was attended by front line managers who have direct control of ‘on site’ safety management.

The focus of attention was on HSE Risk Management and ensuring the contractor’s awareness of their responsibility. Running the course was OOMCO’s HSE & Engineering Manager, Naresh Sujan who said, “The key ingredient towards achieving successful HSE Management and sustainable development within any organisation is dependent on the company’s workforce, which includes contractors who work for them. They, like OOMCO employees, are directly responsible for the safety of the people and the assets they work on. We all have an obligation towards the community, to protect the people and the environment in which we work. To translate this into reality, they have to work together as partners with clear understanding and commitments towards the same mission and goals. We have found many contractors are proud to be associated with our Company, predominantly due to its inherent strength in HSE standards and its open culture in sharing best practices. Good HSE performance is one of our primary objectives, and this meeting has definitely helped to ensure that we clearly understand the right way to manage and control hazards. “

The programme was facilitated by Andrew Ure from HSE Partenaire, who helped drive the workshop around the theme of ‘Assessing Health, Safety and Environmental Risks’ and involved identifying the factors that could cause potential accidents and damage to the environment and the mitigation measures that should be put in place to prevent those occurrences from happening. The assessment completed during the meeting is a live process, becoming part of the ongoing OOMCO Health, Safety and Environmental Management programme.

Mike Wilson, OOMCO’s Managing Director concluded the workshop by saying, “If you work for OOMCO you go home to your family in a safe and healthy manner at the end of your day’s work – regardless of whether you are staff or a contractor. That is a core value for this Company and we expect our contractors to share the same values. Good safety makes good business sense.”

At the end of the meeting the contractors signed a “contractor’s declaration” as a commitment towards their commitment to OOMCO’s HSE management programme. In particular they have signed up to the Company’s principle HSE Goals:

• No accidents
• No harm to people
• No damage to the environment