From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited (NPDC) Ali Zarah has called on staff to imbibe the Health Safety and Environment Culture (HSE) to attain goal zero with no fatality during operations.
The theme of the HSE week celebration was PIA and HSE Goal Zero: “Achieving Performance Excellence”.
Zarah made the call during the 2021 HSE week which held at the NPDC Head Office along Ogba Road, Benin City.
The Managing Director was represented by the Executive Director, Engineering and Technical Services, Engineer Ibrahim Sarafa.
Zarah said the HSE week was a period set aside to jointly reflect on the journey towards attaining goal zero injury, accidents and zero impact on the environment in all NPDC’s operational areas.
He added that every step taken in the industry without considering HSE was an intentional step to violate policies, standards, statues and ultimately cause self- destruction.
“Any Business endeavour we embark upon has both positive and negative impact and we must intentionally work for the positives to remain in business.
“This is the more reason safety comes first in all our operations so as to attain goal zero.
“To have a corporate and socially responsible NPDC, we must imbibe positive Safety culture and conduct our businesses in a sustainable manner with no adverse effect on people, environment, asset and our image.
” Many unfortunate accidents have happened around us to buttress the negative impact of ignoring safety concerns
“The MySafety platform has been created to offer us the opportunity to sustain preventive reporting to eliminate avoidable accidents during operations
“We have continually ensured awareness campaign on this, and I once again urge us to maximise the use of this platform,” he said.
According to him, we will continue to execute and encourage adherence to all HSE rules and government regulations in compliance with the PIA and our HSE policies.
“This will ultimately save lives, ensure sustainable development while supporting economic growth and prosperity for the future,” he added
Zarah, however, urged the staff to ensure that goal zero remained the focus of their operations and never to gamble with safety adding that, the safe way remained the only way to getting job done.
In his welcome address, the Manager, HSE department, Mr Ayodele Olusanya commended the high turnout of the staff and said the HSE week is a yearly awareness event that offers a platform for the department to showcase and drive its organisational mandate.
Olusanya said the week was one of the many tools employed by industry to drive awareness among staff and stakeholders to further propagate the importance of HSE in the oil and gas operations.