Bridging Gaps: Establishing Safety Culture within Young Engineers

Abstract

Abstract The inherent complexity of the processes and the volatile nature of petroleum products compel the petroleum industry to continually seek and develop tools and techniques to identify, evaluate, and mitigate potential risks that can negatively impact their process operations. Additionally, government agencies and nonprofit professional societies guide the petroleum industry with regulatory guidelines, standards, and recommended best practices. The industry and these agencies and societies work to improve operational management, to ensure safe working conditions, and to minimize risk of all kinds, so that if failures occur, damage is contained within tolerable limits. This paper defines the establishment of "Health, Safety and Environment Risk Management System in the Oil Industry" course in Kuwait's Academic institutes. Not only it is designed to cover the technical aspects of HSE in the oil and gas industry, but it also enhances soft skills many students tend to overlook such as communications skills, safety awareness, ethical responsibilities, and most importantly, creating safety culture by exposing HSE awareness and knowledge to cater to the oil and gas industry. In a vision to invest in the human capital, this course will be a starting point to bridge academic gaps between academia and the oil industry throughout different disciplines, as well.