Stand Down For Safety; Powerful Tool in Enhancing Drilling Contractors Safety
Authors: Boucif Mustapha Nasreddine , Al Jaberi Adel Saleh , Tayab Muhammad Rehan , Khalid Jamil 
Published: January 2016

Objectives/Scope

Managing contractor's safety is a continuous journey full of challenges that have severely affected Abu Dhabi Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) HSE performance and reputation in the past. To tackle these challenges where thousands of labours are involved in major projects, drilling Operations and day to day activities within the sensitive environment of Qusahwira field, south of Abu Dhabi, a proactive approach and investment of Two Hours labours workshop called "Stand down for Safety" was introduced.

The main objective of this project was to demonstrate ADCO's duty of care and to show a strong and visible commitment toward labour safety from both ADCO and contractor Management; this approach was to review and analyse all the incidents that have occurred in the past followed by an action plan to avoid reoccurrence and eventually to introduce and rollout new corporate initiatives and programs to tackle challenges that will be encountered in the future using ADNOC best practices.

The main challenges that were tackled successfully during this stand down were:

Heat Stress: The Holy month of Ramadan was these years during summer time. Due to the criticality of the situation, a special Heat stress program was launched to avoid dehydration and heat related accidents.

Road and Work Safety: Eight thousand employees were involved in drilling operations and Major projects and more than Sixty million Km were driven in remote areas using sand tracks with frequent sand storms and harsh weather. Complex drilling operations continued in remote and environmentally sensitive areas without any well control event and injuries due to implementation of barrier analytical approach.

Methods, Procedures, Process

During "Stand down for Safety" all labours are released from work to attend the workshop and participate in these knowledge sharing and learning events to prevent injuries. The function agenda is prepared based on labours feedback and observations in consultation with the field leadership team. This function is conducted in multiple languages to ease and ensure maximum learning is gained through interactive two way communication. The workshop is complimented by the open lunch - another opportunity for the labours and ADCO leadership team informal interaction. These workshops are supported by daily and weekly spot visits by Supervisors and management to check labours learning is being implemented and demonstrated at the work sites. Any deviation from the learning is corrected immediately on site.

Results, Observations, Conclusions

This novel approach was implemented and resulted in TwoYears Free of Accidents.

Novel/Additive Information

The difference between "Stand Down for Safety" and other workshops is that this function is conducted in multiple languages to ease and ensure maximum learning is gained through interactive two way communication. These workshops are supported by weekly spot visits by Supervisors and High profile Tours by Top management to check labours learning is being implemented and demonstrated at the work sites.