EHS Key Business Driver, Stresses ENOC Chief
 Corporate environment, health and safety policies are a driving force for modern business development.
That was the clear message from the 1st Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) Regional Environmental, Health and Safety Conference, held late last year, where industry leaders and consultants argued that EHS is a positive and profitable force in developing a business.
And business guru Peter Ducker’s famous quote, “The first duty of business is to survive and the guiding principle of business economics is not the maximisation of profits but the avoidance of loss” appeared on two presentations during the event.
Opening one of the Middle East’s largest ever energy industry conferences on EHS, Hussain Sultan, Group Chief Executive and Board Member of ENOC, said: “EHS is no longer just an element of social responsibility. It is a vital part of any organisation, vital for employee welfare and for the smooth and efficient operations of any business for the avoidance of human and financial loss.”
ENOC, which strives to be the ‘Energy Partner of Choice’, organised the event in line with its historic commitment to EHS so that clients, authorities, business partners, industry experts and consultants could meet in a networking forum to exchange views and experiences as well as develop strategies for the future.
Some 240 delegates from across the Middle East attended the one-day conference at the Grand Hyatt in Dubai run under the theme of ‘Managing Our EHS Responsibilities Effectively’.
The development of EHS management in the region was the topic of the morning session with Waddah Ghanem, ENOC’S Group EHS Compliance Manager, Rein Melis, HSEMS Co-ordinator for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Ahmed Khalil, HSE Manager of BAPCO Refinery in Bahrain outlining their roles and explaining how attitudes had changed from simple regulatory compliance to a key business driver.
Ghanem said: “EHS is always driven from the top and we are lucky to have a management team that completely believes in this.”
He said ENOC has a dedicated EHS team with specific principles and policies based on local regulations and international best practice, which are followed and audited across all its operations and covered all its contractors.
He added: “Employee participation is key to this policy and our goal is to achieve employee ownership and commitment to the EHS programme.
Delegates at the conference
“Activities that support EHS include employee involvement and participation on safety teams, on-the-job as well as off-the-job safety programmes, and employee participation in EHS activities including meetings training, incident investigation and compliance reviews.”
Rein Melis outlined the management structures and systems that had been developed by ADNOC.
He said the Abu Dhabi oil major had a policy of protecting people and the local community. It believed in environmental protection, energy efficiency promotion and playing a leading role in EHS Best Practice.
ADNOC, he said, promotes a culture in which its employees share their management’s commitment.
He said: “This way we aim to have an EHS performance we can be proud of, be a good neighbour, contribute to sustainable development and earn the confidence of customers, joint venture partners and society at large.”
Ahmed Khalil also argued that a positive safety culture only succeeded if it was owned by the employees, driven by the management and set achievable and measurable goals.
He said: “Since I joined BAPCO in 1980 things have changed dramatically. In the past it was just about complying with regulations and it was not a shared responsibility.
“People were given hard hats and shoes and that was about that. Management viewed EHS as a cost with no effective payback.”
Today EHS is seen as protection for revenue and reputation and the policy is in place because the company wanted it – not because it had to do it.
He added that BAPCO runs regular intensive EHS training sessions for all workers, including contractors, and carefully monitors performance.
Technical sessions of implementing ISO Management Systems, Risk analysis and Code Driven Management Systems were presented in the afternoon by Stephen Seddon of SGS Gulf Systems and Services Certification, Barry Bell of Wagner Fire Safety Consultants and Tom Johnston of the British Standards Institute
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