Historically the Middle East’s oil and gas industry has been accused of paying lip service to HSE issues and treating them as an inconvenient hoop, through which companies are forced to jump.
Invariably, the region took its lead from Western governments and companies and merely followed the same template.
In recent years, the Middle East has sharpened its focus on HSE issues and regional governments have passed a raft of legislation aimed at making the Middle East’s oil and gas industry, safer, more efficient and less environmentally destructive.
The oil and gas sector is heavily regulated across the world and the GCC is no different, where HSE standards are driven by “Supreme Councils” and a tiered approach is in place in the form of Federal and local laws. These Federal and local laws are further supported by Codes of Practice.
“Where the Middle East differs from the rest of the world, however, is that regulators are constantly reviewing HSE standards to meet the occupational HSE challenges of an ever-developing region and adapt to industry best practice,” says Maisaa Nasrallah, chairperson at IOSH’s UAE Branch.
Within the GCC and the wider Middle East the UAE has taken a leading role in passing key legislation to support the oil and gas sector’s HSE managers.
“The UAE has taken the forefront in recent years on the development and implementation of HSE standards across a variety of industries. However, countries, such as Qatar, have also worked hard on improving key aspects of their legal frameworks including worker welfare. Regulators look for international best practices implemented across the globe, in order to adapt them to the region and primarily base them on legislation from the UK, US and Australia,” she adds.
In recent years, the UAE has been amongst the leading players in the region in establishing guidelines and procedures specifically tailored to environmental management. Environmental regulations were previously dealt with by the Ministry of Health but the UAE has developed a specific government Ministry of Environment to deal with these issues.
“I think this was done because over the last decade the environment has become an extremely important aspect for the government and they wanted it to be represented at the highest possible level, which is the cabinet,” says ENOC’s Chief EHSQ compliance officer, Waddah Ghanem.
The UAE government’s commitment to environmental issues is evident in the way that it is taking steps to protect its coastline. As Fujairah develops into a regional and global oil storage hub, the UAE government is devising the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan. This is being implemented by the Ministry of Environment and will provide clear guidance on who is responsible for what during the event of an oil spill.
Many analysts believe that global oil and gas firms previously fostered a culture of secrecy around HSE issues and were used to trying to keep them out of the public eye. However, companies are now beginning to understand that it behoves upon them to be more open about their HSE records.
“Misconceptions exist worldwide regarding the value of accurate HSE reporting where the primary cause is a lack of understanding and appreciation of the key role it plays in identifying risk areas and improving performance. HSE standards can only advance when we understand what gaps currently exist and devise mechanisms to improve them.
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To address this, awareness strategies and campaigns shall move away from the strong focus on reporting “zero accidents” and move towards removing unsafe acts and conditions from the workplace and promoting HSE reporting through incentive schemes,” says Nasrallah.
It is this emerging culture of frank HSE reporting which will help to highlight how legislation can be amended and honed to suit the specific needs of companies operating in the region.
According to Ghanem, HSE governance in the UAE is dependent upon three distinct factors, namely, who is the regulator, the jurisdiction that the facility falls into and the industry to which it relates.
Many industries here in the UAE are regulated by a specific regulator. A good example of this is the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) who regulates all nuclear activities in the UAE across a range of sectors. In the oil and gas industry they are responsible for HSE governance regarding radiography of well heads and tanks.
The second factor affecting HSE legislation in the UAE is jurisdiction. In Dubai, for example, there are various jurisdictions, all with differing HSE requirements.
“Within the Jebel Ali free zone, for example, there is a lot of industry – about 2,000 different companies in a variety of industries. They are specifically regulated by a body called Trakhees. In the rest of Dubai, many of the HSE regulations are governed by Dubai municipality,” he said.
The third and final factor to consider is the specific industry that the company it relates to. Here in the UAE, the Ministry of Labour has regulations concerning occupational health. Some of the regulations fall under the remit of the Ministry of Labour and some fall under the Ministry of Health. Some of them are even handled by the local health authorities, such as the Dubai Health Authority (DHA).
The UAE is working with other GCC countries to improve HSE protocols across the region, according to David Brown, general manager for operations at Integrated Facilities Management service firm, EFS.
“One of the things that I really like about the Middle East is that each of the countries will take a separate HSE issue, and they will analyse it and iron out all of the teething problems. Once they have found a good working solution to the problem, then the other countries will roll it out,” he said.
Part of improving HSE legislation in the region involves ensuring that there are sufficient punitive measures in place for those organisations that break the rules.
“I think you’ve got to consider a number of legal changes coming in to the way that penalties for HSE breaches will be enforced. Middle Eastern governments are becoming stricter in imposing HSE regulations than they were in the past and that in turn is forcing companies to move forward and do the correct thing. This is evident by the number of enquiries we get to provide training services,” said Brown.
This new proactive approach to HSE is emerging as the region’s oil and gas companies realise the benefits of investing sufficiently in HSE outweigh the potential costs of clearing up a major scale disaster. This in turn is leading to companies budgeting sufficiently for HSE which is helping to drive up standards.
“The industry is taking definitive steps towards transforming its view of safety as part of operational excellence. For a long time, safety was seen by some companies as an additional cost in order to meet governmental regulations. Now, companies are challenging this status quo by producing cutting edge solutions for HSE,” said Dr. Elie Daher, executive vice president, United Safety.
