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the shutdown process, gauging the training requirements of
each team member.
It is tempting to give a standard level of training to
every member of staff, especially on a project of this scale.
This is certainly the easy option, however, when it comes
to health and safety, do operators really want to be taking
the easiest option? The least time consuming option
results in training budgets and man-hours being wasted,
with personnel being assigned to take courses they do not
require. More importantly this ‘blanket approach’ also
means specific, vital training that an individual requires can
all too easily get overlooked, or it becomes tricky to
accommodate as the training budget has already been
spent elsewhere. There is, of course, training that the whole
plant will need to undertake. However, there are also some
very specialist requirements that must be provided for. This
process ensures that everyone tasked with specific roles at
the plant are fully up to date, and are fully aware of how to
conduct their tasks safely (i.e. are aware of the hazards and
the control measures to take to protect themselves and
others that could be affected by them). This is imperative,
especially on a site as large as ORPIC’s.
In the case of ORPIC’s site in Sohar, all 7223 workers
required induction training prior to entering the plant. This
covered all the important information on the specific
hazards in the plant, what to do in the event of an
emergency, the overall plant safety rules, the legal duty of
all parties involved in the project and the welfare facility
available for them. This induction training was delivered in
the plant training room a week before the project’s start
date and ran for the duration of the whole project.
RRC Middle East also provided specific training to
2727 workers, such as permit to work, confined space entry
and working at heights courses. Three RRC specialists
conducted this training using a mixture of videos and
practical demonstrations, followed by a written
assessment. RRC’s team also audited a total of 422 permits
to work and monitored all work at the plant from a safety
perspective during the turnaround, identifying 2260
potentially unsafe actions or conditions on site. The RRC
experts were quick to ensure that these risky activities
were corrected, and actions were put in place to make sure
they will not return.
The end result was that the refinery achieved
turnaround within the two month timeframe, with no
delays and no medical treatment cases arising from the
operation.
Conclusion
Safety is absolutely critical to downstream businesses, as
well as plant maintenance. Maintenance is a high risk time
for plant workers, as there are a large number of people on
site at any one time, handling huge amounts of complex
equipment, where the pressure to get the work completed
is huge. Every single day of delay at ORPIC could cost
millions of Rials in oil refining production. It is for this
reason that the company contracted a company such as
RRC to manage the projects and provide an effective
mixture of consultancy advice and practical hands-on
training.
Figure 3.
RRC team checking the firefighting
equipment.
Figure 4.
RRC team providing training to all
contractors working at ORPIC.
Figure 5.
ORPIC workers on a busy site.