HSE Management Tools for Contractors

Abstract

Abstract An integrated energy company, which operates in Brazil and in 27 different countries, which produces 2.4 million boed and with 55800 employees depends upon contractors for a wide range of its activities. Successful completion of contractor work is highly conditioned to an integrated Environment Health and Safety (EHS) management. In 2001 the Company started reformulating its HSE Management System and set 15 Corporate Guidelines. One of these Guidelines is related to acquisition of services, which has a very important role for HSE performance, because of the large number of contractors. This guideline is subdivided into requirements that include HSE aspects in all stages of the contracting process, in a structured and integrated manner. These stages start with the specification of HSE requirements that count with the inclusion of the companies in the vendor list, depending on the risk involved in the scope to be executed, until the final evaluation of the contract. The inclusion of new HSE requirements in its contracting process has contributed to the improvement of the quality of HSE management system and performance of Brazilian and International companies with which it deals. It is worth mentioning that the Company influences, direct or indirectly, about 30000 companies. Since 2001, five annual meetings involving the President, the Board of Directors and contracted companies’ leaders were held to spread HSE policies and guidelines and communicate the new requirements. Each annual meeting involved the participation of the leaders of the 500 main contractors. With this process the Company expects to expand HSE value involving contractors; standardize relationship with contractors; improve HSE performance and reduce losses caused by incidents. The workforce Lost Time Injuries Frequency in 2008 was 0.59 (per million hours worked), almost 5 times less than 2001 and below the industry average. The Fatal Accident Rate (per 100 million hours worked) was 6 times smaller in the same period. In the last 7 years, oil spills were substantially reduced reaching during this period a maximum of 530 m3, one of the lowest records of the oil industry. The inclusion of the new requirements promoted the implementation of a structured HSE Management System by the contracted companies, resulting in a higher commitment to social and environmental responsibility and significant results related to accident prevention in these companies.