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+ Health, safety and environment
SEARCHING FOR
THE IDEAL PROCESS
“A MINOR FAILURE CAN HAVE A HUGE IMPACT. IN THIS INDUSTRY, YOU NEED TO SEARCH FOR THE IDEAL PROCESS AND
ENSURE THAT YOU CARE FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL INVOLVED. THAT’S THE ONLY WAY TO ACHIEVE A SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE
BUSINESS,” SAYS FOUAD QABAZARD OF KUWAIT PETROLEUM INTERNATIONAL.
TEXT: PER WIGGO RICHARDSEN PHOTOS: KPI
Fouad Qabazard is the Group Manager
of Health, Safety & Environment of
a leading global oil company. Kuwait
Petroleum International (KPI) – known by
its trademark Q8 brand – was established
in 1983 to manage the refining and marketing
interests of its parent company,
the government-owned Kuwait Petroleum
Corporation, outside Kuwait. Today, KPI’s
portfolio of facilities includes some 4,000
filling stations, around 40 airport refuelling
facilities, four refineries (including
two in the planning phase) and three
lubricant blending plants, as well as supporting
storage depots, warehouses, jetties
and other infrastructure. These facilities
are concentrated in Europe and East Asia.
Years ago, when Mr Qabazard was new
to his position, he had to investigate an
incident at one of the company’s petrochemical
sites in Europe. A very senior
manager – who at that time had some 25
years of experience – said something that
struck a chord.
“Luckily no-one was seriously hurt that
time,” recalls the HSE manager. “But, as
with all incidents, we needed to know what
had really happened and why – to investigate
the underlying causes. The operating
manager used some simple words, saying:
“I didn’t know what I was doing was wrong.
No-one had told me. The training I had
been through had not corrected me.”
“I can’t forget what this experienced
manager told me. It really affected me.”
Mr Qabazard leaves us in no doubt. He
is really interested in achieving the company’s
overall goal; to sustain a level of
performance that is consistently superior.
He is interested in safeguarding the daily
working conditions of the person he met
after that incident and all the others working
for his company.
INTEREST PAYS OFF
And, when benchmarking against other oil
companies, he has shown that this interest
pays off. Concawe – a European organisation
carrying out research into safety and
environmental issues relevant to the oil
industry – has ranked Kuwait Petroleum
International’s overall performance among
the top quarter of companies.
“If that senior manager did not know,
how can we expect thousands of others in
our organisation to know? So, wherever
KPI does business we need to simplify and
make our procedures and routines userfriendly
and practical. We have to ensure
positive thinking, actively share information
within the company and with our stakeholders,
and further develop our safety
culture. The regular reporting of incidents
is of course crucial, but reports also have
to be simplified; they should not be overwhelming,
they must simply contain what
is needed. That way the content of the
report will be understood and we can all
learn from the incident, which is the main
objective.”
However, Mr Qabazard wants to share
the credit and results his company has
achieved over the past few years. “No-one
can walk alone,” he says. “In the same way
as we have to share experience internally,
we also have to search for best practices
and learn from outside. When following
up an explosion in one of our refineries
some ten years ago, we decided to bring
DNV on board. Your focus on asset management
and tools for process risk management
has been very useful and taken
our company closer to its ambitions.”
ZERO INCIDENTS BY 2020
One of Kuwait Petroleum International’s
strategic goals is to have zero incidents
and zero accidents by 2020. Due to this,
all types of injuries and losses have to be
reduced and each individual’s workplace
should be in safe surroundings.
The head of HSE continues: “Through
continuous improvements based on critical
50 – no 01 2012