Quarterly March 2012 - Odfjell

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CHAiRMAN’S MESSAgE odfjell quarterly magazine
Laurence W. Odfjell
Dear colleague,
in light of recent situation and incidents surrounding Odfjell Terminals (Rotterdam) (OTR) the Odfjell management
and Board have been monitoring the situation very closely. in January, Laurence Odfjell, Chairman of the Board,
spent some time at OTR in order to review the current situation but also to make himself available for management
and employees at OTR. Below shows an excerpt of a letter from him that has been given to all OTR employees,
to share with their families, following these recent events.
As a follow up to the presentations I held at
our Rotterdam terminal last week, I would
also like to send this personal message to you
and your families.
First of all, I think it is important for everybody
to know that Odfjell as a company has safety
as a core value. Our number one concern is
that everyone can work at Odfjell in a safe
manner and in a safe working environment.
We also want our neighbours and the community
surrounding us to know that we work
in a safe and responsible manner, so they
can have confidence that their safety or their
health are not at risk.
Media: the way people see us
It is painful for all of us to see the negative
public perception of our Rotterdam terminal
(OTR). What affects us most is how this media
coverage has raised the concern of your
families and friends about your well-being.
They may be worried whether it is safe for
you to go to work and question what kind of
company you work for. As I said last week:
if it were unsafe or unhealthy for you to go
to work, we would not allow you to come to
work. Neither would the authorities. We all
care about your safety.
Reporting concerns
Last week, I received some anonymous letters
that I discussed with the Works Council.
Although there were valuable and valid concerns
in these letters, we did not receive any
concrete examples of unsafe conditions that
were not being handled properly by OTR. If
you see anything that you are concerned is not
safe or in violation of our operational permit,
then you must bring this to the attention of
your manager. If there is lacking response
from your manager, then escalate to his/her
manager or to HR. Only then can we ensure
that we know of the unsafe condition and only
then can we act upon it. Similarly, any manager
or any employee receiving any concern
about safety or compliance issues has the duty
to listen properly to the concern and assess
the risk of the situation. Failure by managers
to act upon such input can potentially lead
to disciplinary action because 1) safety is our
overriding concern and 2) there is now zero
tolerance from the authorities and Odfjell
with regards to compliance. We simply cannot
risk any failure to report or act.
BRZO Audit findings
In 2008 the BRZO authorities informed me
that we were lagging behind in terms of safety
and compliance. They were rightly frustrated
with how management had promised
improvements in 2004, but had repeatedly
delayed, for example, certain investments
in maintenance and in control of vapor
emissions.
The authorities have demanded results from
us in a very constructive manner over the
years. In this process they have helped us
improve. In fact, we were recognized for making
improvements by end 2010. During the
last three years we had been progressing in
the right direction, but we have admittedly not
progressed fast and far enough, especially the
last 12 months. But we were on a good path
towards improvement and we had their trust.
So what has happened and why are we now
in the media? I believe it was because we
failed to properly report the butane leak, as
mentioned above. In an instant, all the trust
we had built up with the authorities since
2008 was lost. Now we are understandably
under a regime of almost zero tolerance by
the authorities – and we need to work twice
as hard to regain their trust.
In that sense, the next six months will be critical
for us to demonstrate by the next BRZO
audit that we have made significant progress
on our action list towards compliance. During
my visits to the terminal in recent weeks, I
have sensed a lot of motivation from our many
co-workers at OTR to contribute in making
progress, but most of you do not know the
content of the action list. Obviously, by us
communicating better what needs to get done
by whom during the next difficult months; we
will work more aligned with common objectives.
I have therefore made a commitment to
you that you will receive better information
for how you can contribute to get OTR back
on track faster.
The steps forward
This year will be very challenging with a lot of
work to demonstrate to the BRZO authorities
and our community that we are in control of
the safety at our terminal. We need to demonstrate
that we have made significant progress
in our preventive maintenance programme.
www.odfjell.com
We need to ensure and demonstrate that all
potential risks detected from Hazops, Audits,
Safety walks, Investigation reports, etc. have
been mitigated with appropriate actions
and lines of defence implemented. We need
to ensure that our facilities are fully fit for
purpose.
We need to demonstrate that we have
embarked on the path of creating a proactive
safety culture where we foresee what can go
potentially wrong. Of course, we need to also
demonstrate that we learn from incidents.
I am confident that we will be successful. I
know the expert knowledge we have onsite.
We have a strong Management Team and I
have seen the progress they have made in
recent years. But, we will have to accelerate
the pace of progress. Easier said than done.
We will use all the help and support we can
to accelerate our progress, including the use
of many expert and reputable consultants.
The simple goal is to get better faster. The
difficult goal is to make such improvement
into something sustainable.
Rest assured that the owners of OTR, Odfjell
and our new partner Lindsay Goldberg, want
to invest to ensure that the QHSE standards of
OTR are robust and sustainable. Both partners
maintain confidence in the management,
the organisation and remain committed to
investing in your safety.
Remember
• If it were unsafe or unhealthy for you to go
to work, we would not allow you to come to
work
• It is OK to say STOP, if you think something
is unsafe
• You are responsible for your own personal
safety – demand zero tolerance from yourself
• Our customers are never asking us to take
shortcuts on safety
• You are not doing OTR a favour if you hide
a violation – report it
• We are all in the same boat. We can all
contribute to safety
Stay safe!