In safe hands

The oil and gas industry faces mounting challenges when it comes preventing accidents and injuries, as well as the impact of its operations on the environment. Julian Rogers catches up with Yassin Darwish, Danagas, Egypt HSE Manager, to get his take on standards.

“One of the many challenges in Egypt in general is road safety, and according to the WHO we have one of the highest fatality rates in the world”
-Yassin Darwish

The oil and gas industry is perceived by some young people as a dangerous career choice. How have health and safety efforts and standards improved in recent years?
Yassin Darwish. In recent years we have set up a committee for the oil and gas operating companies in Egypt. We are trying hard to solve all the problems and trying also to improve the standards. Our main concern nowadays is with our local contractors in Egypt because they are not meeting any of the international standards. So we are working hard on this issue with cooperation, of course, from the government to have new legislations. Through these many committees and with the government and five NGO’s running right now we are working on those issues. We feel we are improving and trying to make it safer for the corporations and also preserve the natural resources as much as we can. We have training for all issues relating to HSE in the oil and gas industry to raise standards for the workforce.

And what would you say are the main risks that oil and gas workers face today?
YD. We have huge challenges in Egypt with our local workforce and also in
the community because literacy in Egypt is not high. The ignorance to the safety, health and governmental issues is very high, while education on health and safety issues is not very effective. We can say that our workforce falls into two categories: they follow the rules while they are on the sites but when they go outside our worksites they are exposed to the community that is not following the rules. One of the many challenges in Egypt in general is road safety, and according to the WHO we have one of the highest fatality rates in the world.

What’s the best approach to tackling HSE issues and complying with legislation?
YD. Most of the oil and gas companies are following very firm procedures, but compared to the whole global community we are not so effective. However, the Egyptian governmental is very cooperative on these issues in trying to reduce incidents as much as possible. Also, in the tender process they look for HSE statistics and the history of the company. An IOC will normally have high HSE statistics but if they have environmental fines in other countries, for instance, they will face restrictions. So we are working on these issues.

It is well documented that the oil and gas industry faces skills shortages, with experienced personnel approaching retirement and graduated tending to pursue other careers. How is this affecting HSE efforts?
YD. In HSE in Egypt it is not easy to find high calibre and well-educated staff that have the right experience. However, this is not a just a problem for Egypt – it is a worldwide concern. We try to improve this situation through education. We now have some UK certificates and also American certificates we are trying to introduce now in Egypt. Most of the workforce now gets education and we also try to help new generations so that old HSE managers are passing on their experience to tomorrow’s managers.

The MENA region can be a fairly inhospitable region with hot and dusty conditions to contend with, not to mention security and political concerns. How does this affect work?
YD. If you take the IOC, they are working to their standard set of rules. Then comes the difficulty of understanding and implementing this in different cultures. As I said earlier, there is ignorance in some countries – not just Africa but worldwide. If you are educated in HSE from your first year with an oil and gas company you never achieve what an IOC wants, especially if you work in many countries. Of course, there is a standardised approach when it comes to the environment because there are conventions that we have adhere to. But how we implement those conventions and how we understand them, this is a challenge. I believe the NGOs have a much stronger understanding of this. They have a lot of enforcers so are more effective than governments on these issues.

How does the approach of the IOCs differ to that of NOCs?
YD. Standards are created by the companies and most of them want to work to the minimum standards in order to prevent incidents. There are a lot of IOCs who are trying to continually improve the standards and, at the same time, carry out sustainability or corporate social responsibility (CSR). So some companies are taking responsibility to try and improve awareness and understanding of the impact on the local communities. On the other hand, other companies with different standards may be doing physical things like refurbishing a community facility. This means there is a large variance between standards of the oil companies.

Do you foresee any major changes in Egypt with HSE over the next few years and how will this impact on your operations?
YD. I think Egypt is moving ahead right now in its effort to improve standards. You can see improvement because we are trying to communicate and interact more as IOCs when it comes to HSE. With these strong relationships we are approaching governments and NGOs because they are very willing to help. I believe that in five years from now we will very effective with this as an industry. They, like us, are trying to protect the environment and out natural resources.

Has the global economic downturn affected HSE standards within the industry as a whole?
YD. I don’t want to name companies, however most operate to the same international standards and if they violate these standards that may be fined. So they need to make sure they do the right thing. What we are trying to also do now in Egypt is standardise IOC standards according to the best that are out there. We are also negotiating so that we have government, not IOC, standards and this is enforced as the minimum HSE requirements. In Egypt it is not firm at the moment but we want to make it clear and not from the interpretation of any company. This will improve HSE standards in Egypt a lot.