Preventing major accidents

To minimise risks to people and the environment, we have extensive safety measures and procedures in place to avoid accidents at every phase of our activities.

We use a number of tools to help us do so:

• Operating Standards, applied to our Project Delivery Process (PDP; see below) across the business life cycle;
• our Corporate Responsibility Management System (CRMS), which defines the Standard Operating Procedures applied in our projects;
• high standards of programme design, equipment, and the application of good industry practice and international legislation; and
• highly competent staff and contractors.

Keeping close control

Our PDP helps us to understand and control risks at key stages of all our projects. The PDP helps us to focus on what is important and apply good practice in line with our requirements, as well as international and national standards. This includes the application of our Corporate Major Accident Prevention Policy (CMAPP) across Group activities.

The PDP and our standards also help us to challenge partners in non-operated ventures.

Each stage gate within the PDP has defined actions and deliverables, which must be signed off by an internal, independent ‘gatekeeper’ before progressing to the next stage.

The gatekeeper closely monitors the project’s integrity and performance, identifying and implementing corrective actions when required.

Prepared to respond

We must be prepared to respond in the unlikely event of an accident or incident that may impact people, the environment, our assets or our reputation. To respond to high-impact, low-frequency events, we maintain a crisis and emergency response capability, which we test regularly and look to continuously improve.

Our crisis and emergency management software, Crisis Incident Management (CIM), is ISO-accredited and widely regarded as being best practice in our industry.

Managing occupational safety

We provide our people with a safe work system which employees have a responsibility to follow. We assess the systems of our major contractors for compatibility and bridge any gaps or differences.

Together, these mean that the safety of our people is reinforced throughout the business in a number of ways:

• all risks are managed to ‘as low as reasonably practicable’ (ALARP) levels;
• operations must adhere to our CRMS, including CMAPP; and
• we have plans and mechanisms in place to manage risks in our operated projects.

To manage occupational safety within daily operations, we use a number of mechanisms, including:

• CRMS procedures;
• behavioural safety initiatives;
• management visits;
• audits;
• permits to work;
• toolbox talks;
• safety drills; and
• training.

Our people and contractors are encouraged to cease work if an unsafe condition or risk to the environment may occur. We do not resume work until those risks are fully understood and controls are in place.

We also have a robust incident investigation process that ensures incidents are recorded and investigated, and lessons are learned.