Gamal Fathy, the Head of the Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) Committee at the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoPMR) has announced that a Safety Stand Down was implemented at the 11 geographic areas in Egypt.
This includes Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and Sinai, Tanta, Delta, Assiut, North and East Gulf of Suez, South Gulf of Suez, Western Desert, Eastern Desert, North Upper Egypt and South Upper Egypt.
The stand down included an awareness program for employees at the companies, emphasizing the integration of HSE measures and ensuring safety at operation sites to guarantee operational and production sustainability. It focused on the importance of following safe driving rules throughout the petroleum value chain and providing safe transportation for the petroleum sector.
It also highlighted the importance of applying safe driving methods according to MoPMR strategy which depends on adopting proactive measures for taking all procedures and measures to prevent accidents at the level of the three elements of the petroleum work system (training and development of individuals – efficiency and maintenance of equipment and means of production – Safe work procedures, safe work methods, and business control procedures) and in parallel, developing emergency plans and periodic training on them to ensure readiness for any emergency.
Fathy conveyed the message of the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi about the importance of applying HSE measures as a top priority for the sector, stimulating the workers to ensure applying safe transportation producers.
It is worth noting that MoPMR is implementing an integrated strategy for HSE, and process safety that includes several main pillars; unified safety standards derived from Egyptian laws and legislation and international standards such as American standards, standards of executive directors of the Petroleum Institute, NFPA, API, and the United Kingdom for Health, Safety and Environment , application of Process Safety Management (PSM) , Raising awareness and safety culture among workers at all levels, Applying digital solutions and digital transformation in all safety systems and procedures and developing systems for selecting and managing contractors .
Also, several interactive workshops are held with international organizations concerned with developing safety systems in the oil and gas sector such as the International Organization of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) and the International Maritime Organization regarding safety standards for contractors of transporting and shipping oil and petroleum products via general and specialized ports.
