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Pearl GTL onshore project achieves safety record

Doha: The Pearl Gas to Liquids project in Ras Laffan Industrial City has reached 75 million man hours without a single injury leading to lost work time, a record both for Ras Laffan Industrial City and for Shell worldwide.

Pearl GTL is being developed by Qatar Petroleum and Shell. Almost 50,000 people are currently working on the onshore site at Ras Laffan Industrial City . The site is the size of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens in London and is the largest in the global oil and gas industry today.

Seventy-five million manhours is the equivalent to the whole working life of one thousand people. The safety record on Pearl GTL has been achieved as a result of close collaboration between Qatar Petroleum , Ras Laffan Industrial City and Shell.

Pearl GTL has implemented an extensive safety programme focussed on creating a culture in which everyone recognises their role and responsibility in ensuring the safety of themselves and everyone around them.

The project has devoted huge effort to identifying possible hazards and taking training and other actions to ensure they are minimised. Workers from Pearl GTL have completed over 300,000 safety and leadership courses in a custom-built training centre.

The Pearl GTL training centre is located in the heart of the Pearl Village, purpose-built workers' accommodation built around extensive sports and other recreational facilities designed to create a sense of community. A welfare team organises around 300 community events per month. A 150-strong team of volunteers led by two project psychologists provide counselling and other support to ensure workers' mental well-being.

Twice a year workers on the project down tools for Safety Day, renewing their commitment to working safely for themselves and the people around them. Indian cricket legend Kapil Dev has participated in Safety Day three times to talk about his own commitment to safety.

The Global Chief Executives of the contracting companies working on Pearl GTL, along with project leadership, have met on site for six CEO Summits since the project began and on each occasion have conducted dedicated safety walks to demonstrate their own safety commitment.

The project team has also focussed on compliance. Clear safety rules are in place, based on Shell's 12 Life-Saving Rules. Knowingly breaking the rules has consequences, up to dismissal. Over 750 people have been removed from the site for breaking safety rules.

Abdulla Hussain Salatt, Chairman of Pearl GTL said 'Safety is a core value in QP and we work hard with all our partners to make sure all the workers on our projects are looked after and leave work safely every day. On Pearl GTL, Shell has achieved an impressive milestone of safe working hours. QP would like to congratulate them for this achievement'.

Abdulaziz Al Muftah, RLIC Director remarked ' Pearl GTL has done an excellent job driving safety, the foundation of their success has been their care for people, exemplified by the excellent, Pearl Village where most of their 50,000 workers live. They have set new standards in worker welfare and safety performance, which we congratulate them for.'

Andy Brown, Shell's Executive Vice President, said: "I would like to congratulate the team working on Pearl GTL on this great safety performance, which is the result of consistent effort by everyone from the highest management to the most junior worker. The challenges are great, particularly in the hot summer months we are now entering, but we intend to maintain our focus on safety through construction completion and into the decades of production ahead."

Pearl GTL is the world's largest GTL project and the largest energy project ever launched in Qatar. It will produce liquid fuels, lubricants and chemical feedstocks from natural gas, opening new markets for Qatar's natural resources. It will also produce significant quantities of natural gas liquids and ethane.

© The Peninsula 2010