ORYX GTL The Road to Zero Harm and Beyond

Michael J. Turner
HSE Manager ORYX GTL

Abstract: In December 2009, our Chief Executive Officer Abdulrahman Al-Suwaidi, initiated ORYX GTLs highly successful safety culture transformation programme called Road to Zero Harm Campaign. The primary objective of this, being to introduce and embed the companywide-shared value that, Safety is Our Way of Life. In August 2012, following a consistently high level of commitment from all levels of our business, we reached Total Recordable Injury Rate (TRIR) of Zero. We did not see this as the end of our safety journey, but as a milestone on a continuous journey. Following a variety of activities and changes in our practices we now face new challenges in how we go Beyond Zero. We see Beyond Zero as a challenge to move away from controlling safety to assuring safety. This behaviour change involves everyone. We consider we have reached Zero TRIR through the rigors of a robust safety control system. Going Beyond Zero is not about an even more robust safety control system, but about transferring its ownership from HSE practices to the whole company including our contractors. HSE can then focus on assuring the controls applied.

1. Introduction
ORYX GTL, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Sasol, is a Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) plant converting natural gas into high-performing, ultra-clean liquid fuels. Its another way to monetize gas reserves. The ORYX GTL plant has been running since 2006 and as the first plant of its kind and scale has proven this new and emerging technology. In that time we have faced a variety of challenges and passed a great variety of operational milestones. Our Vision: We are a principled, environmentally responsible company committed to creating an efficient diversified energy business, developing our people and adding value to Qatars natural resources. Qatar's health, safety and environment (HSE) regulatory regime is developing as the countrys economy continues to grow and expand. Although existing legislation in Qatar addresses various aspects of HSE, the need for a robust HSE regime is becoming increasingly evident. Ensuring compliance with the requisite provisions of various laws and regulations, in the absence of centralised legislation, presents additional and unique demands from senior management and HSE practitioners that are not always encountered in other HSE regulatory regimes. In addition to making a contribution to the development of progressive, centralized HSE legislation, ORYX GTL adopted a unique approach to safety to ensure a world-class performance that would meet the expectations of the Companys employees, shareholders and other stakeholders, including Qatari society. Thus, in December 2009, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Abdulrahman Al-Suwaidi, initiated ORYX GTLs highly successful safety culture transformation programme. Called Road to Zero Harm Campaign, the expectation was for all contractors and staff to go home following a safe shift at work. The primary objective of the Campaign is to introduce and embed the companywide-shared value that Safety is Our Way of Life. Our senior management were all committed to making this a reality which they matched with a willingness to do whatever is required.

2. The Road to Zero Harm

From the moment of declaration of intent this milestone took almost 3 years to reach. Five main activities were followed for this: 2.1. Detailed Strategies: As a behaviour change programme, we knew we had to introduce practices and changes in behaviour progressively over time at a rate that the organization could cope with. By targeting success in easier areas first (e.g., wearing of correct personal protective equipment), we were able to then progress to other practices (e.g., safe use of equipment). This was supported by strategies covering a five year period by year and updated each year. 2.2. Detailed Plans: The only way for us to connect the strategy to our people was through plans by week, by month, with dates, accountabilities and clear expectations. These plans not only focused on activities and priorities, but also on outputs and outcomes. The HSE Manager and direct reports meet every week to measure the progress of initiatives against the plan. When a specific action is found to be lagging, a recovery plan is agreed upon and put into place by the responsible HSE team member. 2.3. Detailed Measurement: TRIR is a good measure, but it is a lagging indicator. A suite of indicators both leading and lagging were identified and established within a key performance indicator framework. This hierarchy of measurement connected our CEO with all levels of our business. Each of these was given incremental targets, reviewed regularly in the right forum with the right people and actions committed to as a means of driving their improvement. 2.4. Leadership and Role Model: The Chief Operations Officer (COO) and HSE Manager meet every month to review the progress of initiatives against the plan and to review resource requirements. Specific results are cascaded up to the Chiefs Weekly Meeting and where applicable to the Executive Committee Meeting each quarter. Our Executive Management drive regular site safety walks covering different themes and recognizing excellence where they find it. As a company, ORYX GTL has embraced the challenge of turning around its own safety culture and has visibly driven it towards excellence. This is a clear and visible statement of total commitment. Employees are now willing to take on HSE issues and work them as individuals or as a team because the new found knowledge has given them the confidence and tools to succeed and be recognised by the company in doing so. Through strong leadership, transparent well communicated information and management instilling the desire to continuously improve, employees now in their role in HSE. 2.5. Celebrate Success: The results of the Road to Zero Harm campaign has brought ORYX GTL local, national, international and self-recognition and has proven itself as a company leading the way to a safer more sustainable future. Self-recognition in 2012 was celebrated with our contractors twice that year with a well received 650 person Gala Dinner during which ORYX GTL recognised both its employees and contractors dedicated contribution toward safety excellence. Recognition Awards were presented to contractors and employees by the CEO during both events in top hotels in Doha. ORYX GTL has affirmed its reputation as one of the worlds safest and most productive energy companies by outperforming teams from around the world to win two prestigious Sasol awards. ORYX GTL has been honored as the Sasol Badger Safety Team of the Year and Sasol Badger Production Team of the Year. Six Sasol Badger Team awards are awarded annually to Sasol teams, subsidiaries and Joint Ventures from around the world, competing for honors in the categories of best Project, Services, Innovation, Operations, Customer Services, and Safety Performance teams of the Year. With a focused and dedicated effort from every employee, in August 2012 ORYX GTL became only the second Qatari company in history to achieve a Zero Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR). Two weeks later, ORYX GTL reached another safety milestone of 10,000,000 man-hours without any recordable incidents or lost workdays.

3. The Results

The most obvious result for us is the above graph showing our attainment of Zero TRIR. This alone is not enough as we also look at our safety culture.

Every year we undertake an engagement survey with all of our staff as a temperature check for our culture. Shown is the top scoring safety related questions answered by employees, which clearly shows the strength, depth and sustained safety culture in ORYX GTL. We have seen this score progressively increase in the past three years, as shown in the increment gained last year.

4. Beyond Zero Harm

We know for certain that we cannot stand still. Achieving zero TRIR is not the end for ORYX GTL, but a point for celebration on our journey. We now need to work further on our safety culture, managing our safety culture through Executive visibility, project steering committees, safety meetings, management walkabouts, inspections, auditing, closing actions, safety moments, campaigns, communications (PR&C), contractor management, toolbox talks, staff reporting, safety notifications, HR first contact, leadership and commitment. This leads us to the five main activities mentioned previously. These still apply though we see their content evolving. There are more milestones and plans to attain them.

This is our incident triangle for the total plant shutdown we ran in February and March this year. This represents about 1.8 million manhours of work and as our third major shutdown was our first with a zero TRIR. We had a lot of contractors and new staff on site for this event and we were very tough with everyone on our safety requirements. This was in zero tolerance of PPE non-compliance and in a willingness to stop any job anyone was not happy with. We had a safety stand down at two points du ring the shutdown due to concerns of increasing near miss trends and every week worked without a first aid case was celebrated with chocolate and soda. Although we had 6 first aid cases, we still handed out over 12,000 bars of chocolate.

5. Conclusion
We have achieved these results through a lot of safety controls, by increasing our safety personnel presence and trying to ensure things are done correctly. This policing approach gets results, but has limited sustainability. The challenge we now face is how we assure things are done correctly and that it is part of our culture and that of our contractors. This move from control to assurance is our biggest challenge yet and our primary driver to go Beyond Zero Harm.