The Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Ltd. (NPDC) Mr Ali Zarah, has called on staff to imbibe the Health Safety and Environment (HSE) culture to attain zero fatality during operations.
The theme of the week is “PIA and HSE Goal Zero: Achieving performance Excellence”.
Zarah made the call during the 2021 HSE week held at the NPDC Head Office in Benin.
The Managing Director was represented by the Executive Director, Engineering and Technical Services, Mr Ibrahim Sarafa.
Zarah said that the HSE week was a period set aside to jointly reflect on the journey towards attaining goal zero injury, accidents and zero impact on the environment in all NPDC’s operational areas.
He noted that every step taken in the industry without considering HSE was an intentional step to violate policies, standards, statues and ultimately cause self- destruction.
“Any business endeavour we embark upon has both positive and negative impact and we must intentionally work for the positives to remain in business.
“This is the more reason safety comes first in all our operations so as to attain goal zero.
“To have a corporate and socially responsible NPDC, we must imbibe positive safety culture and conduct our businesses in a sustainable manner with no adverse effect on people, environment, asset and our image.
“Many unfortunate accidents have happened around us to buttress the negative impact of ignoring safety concerns.
“The MySafety platform has been created to offer us the opportunity to sustain preventive reporting to eliminate avoidable accidents during operations
“We have continually ensured awareness campaign on this, and I once again urge us to maximise the use of this platform,” he said.
Zarah, however, urged the staff to ensure that goal zero remains the focus of their operations and never to gamble with safety.
In his welcome address, the Manager, HSE Department, Mr Ayodele Olusanya, commended the high turnout of the staff.
He noted that the HSE week was a yearly awareness event that offers a platform for the department to showcase and drive its organisational mandate.
Olusanya said that the week was one of the many tools employed by industry to drive awareness among staff and stakeholders to further propagate the importance of HSE in the oil and gas operations.
The highpoints of the event includes presentation, tour of the exhibition pavilion and the distribution of fire extinguishers to all staff of the company as part of efforts to ensure safety culture.
