KHURSANIYAH, 15 April 2007 — It’s an amazing enterprise — one of several ongoing Saudi Aramco mega-projects intended to add new increments to Saudi Arabia’s production. The output of these projects will rival the entire production capacity of many oil-exporting nations. In the case of Khursaniyah, it will add to both the oil and natural-gas product streams, and it’s an undertaking that takes the best from the projects that have come before it in engineering, innovation and teamwork between Saudi Aramco and its massive contractor workforce.
Contractors are taking great pride in the safety record of this fast-track, 42-square-kilometer mega-project. Safety officials on the project say this is the result of early planning and the cooperation of thousands of workers on site each day.
“We integrated safety into the design process,” said Dave Brotherton, health, safety and environmental manager for Bechtel-Technip joint venture. “We then developed a safety plan using best practices from Bechtel and Technip. We’ve worked with CCC (Consolidated Contractors Co.) on many projects around the world, so we know the best of CCC’s safety procedures. We tried to integrate the best practices throughout the organizations involved in the project.”
Because of the tight construction labor market, the contractors knew they would be recruiting a largely unskilled work force, which prompted a focus on training. “From a very early stage, we had to develop orientation training, which covered such simple issues as climbing ladders or climbing onto a scaffold to wearing a harness, and the value of safety helmets, safety boots and eye protection,” Brotherton said. “With a more skilled workforce, you would expect people to already know these things.”
Comprehensive training programs ensured the transformation of this unskilled work force into a skilled one. Future scaffolders, riggers, equipment operators, welders and safety officers received courses that led to certification. Scaffolders, for example, learned from inspecting more than a dozen structures created with deliberate flaws so they would be able to recognize potential dangers on the job. Brotherton said another key factor for the success so far is the project’s Safety Task Analysis and Risk Reduction Talk (STARRT) program.
Each day, STARRT is the first order of business in which the work of the day is discussed in detail along with potential hazards.
Even when the work is identical to the day before, STARRT starts the day.
Employees also have embraced a near-miss card program that creates a communication loop among workers, safety officials and company managers. Brotherton credited employee enthusiasm for this program as a keystone in accident prevention at the job site. The communication continues up the company ladders when top safety officials from each contractor and Saudi Aramco meet as a steering committee to examine a variety of issues. The committee is empowered to fine tune project procedures to ensure continuous improvements in safety.
Brotherton noted contractors from around the globe have been watching this project with great interest and likely will adopt some of these procedures to improve safety on their job sites in the future.
“Every day on this project is a learning process,” Brotherton said. “It’s very exciting.”
