core sector communique

Safety to ensure Nil Accidents a Paramount Necessity in Oil and Gas Sector: Sudhir Bhargava

The safety of the operations in the hydrocarbon sector is of paramount importance not only in terms of preventing loss but also to enhance productivity and bottom lines of the undertakings. Stressing this while inaugurating a workshop on safety organized by OISD here today, Shri Sudhir Bhargava, Additional Secretary, MoPNG said that the goal therefore should be achieving NIL incident operations. He also said that due importance to safety aspects should be given at the design and engineering stage itself. “ Organisations have to learn a system of Zero Tolerance towards unsafe practices”, he added. Shri Bhargava called for shifting from prescriptive applications to goal setting in this regard in view of the importance of the sector and its highly capital and technology sensitive nature.

Making a case for enhancing capabilities in preventing accidents and fire-fighting by adopting best practices, Shri Bhargava cautioned that we can not afford to learn our lessions hard way. The two workshop on the theme “Enhance Capability in Prevention of Accidents & Fire Fighting: Best Practices in Hydrocarbon Sector ” has be organized by Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) an organisation under the Ministry of PNG. A number of participants representing various companies and stake holders are attending the workshop.

Making a presentation during the inaugural session, Shri L.N.Gupta, JS(R), MoPNG, emphatically brought out various factors that lead to accidents in the sector. A large number of incidents, he said, are caused by human errors in terms of not following the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), lack of supervision and error of judgment, etc. He underlined that prevention must be a priority while concluding by saying, “prepare and prevent, don’t repair and repent” .

In his welcome address Shri Hirak Dutta, ED, OISD highlighted the need for safe practices and setting NIL accident as a goal in the oil & gas sector. Shri Dutta pointed out that various topics to be discussed during the workshop are quite relevant and critical to the operations in the hydrocarbon sector.