12th August 2009, Wednesday – 2009’s 3rd quarter HSE Contractor Forum took place at the BSRC Cenderawaseh Function Hall. This quarter was hosted by SKSWood with representatives Prabakar Kumar (HSE Manager), Hj Mohd Musa Bin Hj Suhaili (Business Development & External Affairs Manager), Hernando Caceres (Commercial / Business Assurance Manager), Alejandro Perez (Operations Team Leader, SKSWood) and Jennifer Nyanggau (HSE Administrator).

Contractors who attended the forum included BSP, SCO, Sahid, MOP and HMM.

Hernando Caceres opened with a welcome note and stressed the point that management participation was vital for their team to progress and remain in green in terms of performance. He also mentioned a few of the HSE initiatives that have the confluent effect of improving safety statistics overall. The most recent of such initiatives include Do the Right Thing campaign and 12 Life Saving Rules. He noted the increase in management site visits and clear reporting, which indicates the level of management commitment towards safety within the business.

Haji Aji (SCO) highlighted the three main areas of concern needing vast attention and improvement by all personnel on location: lack of intervention; lack of identification of hazards, which stems from poor knowledge and awareness; and lack of supervision.

According to Megat Khalid Othman (SCO), SCO accumulated 82 Goal Zero days as of 12th August 2009, with the best recorded being 268 days. He explained that Goal Zero targets ‘no harm to people and towards protecting the environment’. Megat spoke of performance, stressing the need of focal points among contractors to be committed to tasks of utilizing the system in a timely manner such as PAKAT recording to be updated to truly depict all submitted PAKATs as the existing recorded PAKATs are still falling behind set targets.

BSP clocked up 122 Goal Zero Days (as of 12th August 2009), the best result recorded to date. Offshore operations accumulated 86 days.

Other concerns raised included land transport safety with the recent climb in work related road incidents.

With the recent hazy weather conditions affecting operations especially offshore, precautions were discussed as well as updates on how offshore facilities were coping.

Alejandro Perez highlighted the recent findings from incidents offshore. He emphasized the importance of constantly checking expiry dates on all equipment and being aware of their lifespan to control such incidents as potential flash point fires, frequently updating all team members of most recent findings and explosions especially the materials purchaser, to be fully aware and knowledgeable of equipment specifications so as to be able to procure the items rightly and its proper identification and usage by users onsite. Prabakar Kumar (SKSWood HSE Manager) brought clearer understanding on the flashback arrestor (a safety device which prevents travel of flame backwards within the equipment) through discussions and a video.

Any incident, whether minor or significant, impedes any operations and adversely affects HSE performance hence HSE is considered top most priority. Thus, the monthly contractors HSE forum serves to stress that HSE procedures and precautions be taken seriously by all individuals involved.