ABU DHABI, 23 May, 05 (WAM) - Yousef Omeir bin Yousef, SecretaryGeneral of the Supreme Petroleum Council and ADNOC CEO said thatthe ADNOC HSE performance in 2004 has exceeded expectationson most issues and is a further demonstration that the grouptakes HSE seriously.

In a speech at a function held here last night to honour theten winning projects of the 2004 ADNOC Health, Safety & EnvironmentAward, the ADNOC CEO said: "Our corporate lost time injuryfrequency (LTIF) of 0.33 injuries per million man-hours workedis the lowest we have ever achieved.

This is significantly better than the industry average and itwill be challenging to improve on this in future years. Threeof our companies did not have any lost time injuries in 2004.

" Tragically, we experienced four fatalities in 2004 and thisis unacceptable. Group Companies must further strive to generatea safety culture and communicate to all employees and contractorsthat shortcuts and unsafe behaviour will not be tolerated. Wemust not rest until we have achieved our goal of zero work-relatedinjuries. A number of new HSE Codes of Practice were introducedin 2004, in which we adopted international standards and 'bestpractice', tailored to meet ADNOC requirements," he said.

The speech was delivered on his behalf by Abdullah Nasser AlSuwaidi, SPC Member, ADNOC Deputy CEO and Exploration and ProductionDirector.

" Good progress was achieved with a number of initiatives that,albeit with much broader objectives than HSE only, will havean impact on HSE performance. These include a new Asset IntegrityManagement System and the Competency Assurance Management System(CAMS). CAMS now includes HSE competencies.

" HSE Impact Assessments are becoming a cornerstone of the corporateregulatory framework. These provide us with the assurance thatwe are managing safety and environmental impacts in accordancewith best practice. The investment in environmental protectionis crucial and the question is not what it costs us, but whatit saves with a view to making our industry sustainable for futuregenerations All of this has been achieved through the hard workof our employees and contractors. While 18 submissions have beenselected for special recognition this evening, all of this year'sHSE Award entries contributed substantially to us achieving theseresults," the ADNOC CEO said.

He congratulated the awardwinners and also thanked all those individuals, companies andcontractors that participated in the program and contributedto its success.

Mohammed El Mehairy, EH&SD Manager said that he waspleased with the response to this year's programas 183 submissions were received. "This is a 40% increase over2003 and the largest number of submissions since the start ofthe Award program in 1997. Again this year, we saw a significantincrease in contractor participation with contractors submittingalmost 20% of the total number of projects received. A wide varietyof projects were submitted covering new approaches to high hazardoperations, soil remediation, flare loss reduction and environmentaland occupational health management." "In the pursuit of continuous improvement, an important changehas been made to the Awards program this year. An additionalcategory of 'Special Recognition Awards' has been introduced.

These have been given to projects which scored highly in thejudging process but which did not get either first or secondprizes in any of the five main categories (Health, Safety, Environment,HSE Performance and Innovation). The 'Special Recognition' projectswere considered to be of a particularly high standard and towarrant recognition in this year's awards. Again, this year wewill be recognizing those companies who achieved zero Lost TimeIncidents (LTI's) for the year. An independentstudy of the HSE Award process has also been initiated. Theresultsof this study will be used to drive further improvements in theprogram for 2005 and beyond," Al Mehairy said.

The 2004 HSE Awards has seen the submission of 183 entriesfrom 16 Companies.

In addition to the five winning projects and five runners-upof the five-category award, this year saw the introductionof Special Recognition Awards to be extended to companies whosesubmissions attracted special attention for their impressiverecord in any of the various HSE fields.

Started in 1997, ADNOC HSE Awards is designed to recognize outstandingachievements by employees and affiliated contractors of the ADNOCGroup Companies in the areas of Health, Safety & Environment.

The Awards provide tangible evidence of ADNOC's commitment toHSE and is a key element in the ongoing initiative to promoteHSE amongst company employees and contractors.