MUSCAT -- Confirming its adherence to globally recognised management systems in Quality, Health, Safety and the Environment (QHSE), Oman LNG, the Sultanate's main liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and export facility, has retained its International Organisation Standardisation (ISO) certifications. The company also received the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) Certification.
The certifications follow an extensive, independent audit conducted by Vincotte International, an accredited certification body on the company's business processes to assess all requisite requirements for conformity, such as compliance to governing legal and other requirements, staff/contractors competency, documentation of processes, emergency preparedness and response, and performance measurement, monitoring and improvements.
Last year and in 2007, Oman LNG was re-awarded with the revised standard of the ISO 9001:2008 and 14001:2004 series of certification respectively, having first earned the ISO's 9001:2000 and 14001:1996 Series certification some ten years ago, soon after it started operations at its Sur-based plant.
Over the course of a decade, the company has routinely maintained the certifications, following a number of pre-determined surveillance and third party re-certification audits that authenticate the company's level of compliance and continual improvement in Quality and Environmental Management respectively.
This year, Oman LNG extended its family of certifications to include BS -- OHSAS 18001:2007 certification, that assists organisations reduce risks linked to occupational health and safety in the work environment as they relate to employees, customers and the general public. The BS -- OHSAS 18001:2007 certification is compatible with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001,
"These latest certifications follow comprehensive checks on our operations by an independent third-party and confirm Oman LNG's efforts at maintaining the superior quality of our operations, our careful and consistent attention to health and safety, and that we undertake our activities with a deliberate concern for the environment", speaking from Oman LNG's Sur-based production facility after the three certifications were handed to the company's management team by Vincotte, Jamal al Maskary, the company's Head of Quality and Management Framework said.
In July, the company achieved three million (3,000,000) man-hours without Lost Time Injury (LTI), even as it had re-launched in June, its 12 Life Saving Rules-- a simple and clear list of "dos and don'ts" that carry the greatest potential threat of serious injury but helps to make sure that the rules are followed and people are protected.
Oman LNG operates as a world-class company, selling cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to customers in Asia and Pacific-Rim countries.
The company, Oman's primary LNG exporter, contributes between twelve (12) to fifteen (15) per cent to the Sultanate's GDP, and is the largest contributor to Oman's economy after oil.
It operates as joint-venture Company with a shareholding structure comprising the Government of Oman (51 per cent), Shell Gas B V (30 per cent), Total S A (5.54 per cent), Korea LNG (5 per cent), Mitsubishi Corporation (2.77per cent), Mitsui and Co. (2.77 per cent), Patex (Oman) Corporation 2 per cent, and Itochu (0.92 per cent).
© Oman Daily Observer 2011
