As global exploration, development, and production of oil and gas resources shifts to more-complex, -remote, and -challenging fields, the need to safeguard people and the environment, as well as asset integrity, becomes ever more critical, said Abdulmunim Al Kindy, upstream director at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).
Delivering the keynote address at the 2018 SPE International Conference and Exhibition on Health, Safety, Security, Environment, and Social Responsibility, Al Kindy said that fundamental changes in work practices, along with heightened stakeholder awareness, mean that the oil and gas industry must continue to ensure that effective health, safety, and environment (HSE) protection measures are at the center of operations.
“Working in partnership is key to safeguarding people, communities, and the environment—partnership among our people, to proactively address and mitigate HSE risks; partnership with our industry peers, to learn from incidents and continuously advance HSE standards; and partnership with our contractors, to ensure people, across sites and operations, live and breathe a culture of HSE first,” Al Kindy said.
“At ADNOC, being serious about our ambition of 100% HSE is not only the right thing to do but the smart thing, as it makes solid business sense," Al Kindy said. "We expect and empower our staff and contractors to speak up, intervene, and ensure compliance whenever safety is at risk, as it is our firm conviction that HSE is the fundamental platform that enables people, performance, profitability, and efficiency, the cornerstones of ADNOC’s success.”
To unlock greater value from the nation’s resources, ADNOC plans to tap into Abu Dhabi’s sour gas reserves and has begun on the exploration and appraisal of challenging unconventional resources while, at the same time, driving efficiencies to preserve value. Al Kindy said that ADNOC’s reinvigorated and uncompromising focus on HSE is a commitment to protect people and the environment in ever-more-challenging situations.
Stressing that ADNOC’s focus on 100% HSE is fundamental to the success of its 2030 smart growth strategy, Al Kindy said an effective safety culture, one that proactively empowers people to intervene when safety or the environment are at risk, is key to ADNOC’s successful transformation into a more resilient, commercially minded, and performance-driven company.
“We expect the same level of commitment to HSE from everyone, including each and every partner, service provider, and contractor, who make up for 60 to 70% of the work executed across the ADNOC Group. For ADNOC, this is an investment for the better, an investment in our people, in our businesses, and in our nation,” he said.