Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) conducted a safety 'stand down' procedure over its entire spectrum of operations in the presence of staff and contractor employees, explaining various safety procedures.

Bapco deputy chief executive and environment, health and safety committee chairman Ebrahim Talib said the 'stand down' referred to the injuries which took place over recent times, and emphasised that employees would strive to implement necessary safety tools to limit them, reported the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

"The fundamental purpose of this procedure is to urge company employees to underline root causes of incidents and injuries, and enhance safety procedures in various work sites in the company."

He said that the safety 'stand down' falls under the global practices applicable in major industrial enterprises worldwide in order to improve readiness of the company prior to the occurrence of major accidents.

"It conducts a periodic evaluation of the standards and safety procedures and addresses shortcomings in safety performance, while enhancing the importance of the application of good practices in the field of environment, health and safety, as well as consolidating the culture of occupational safety in the minds of workers in the framework of Bapco's leading role and social responsibility in establishing well-established and effective concepts of safety throughout the community," he said.

Bapco and contractor employees are encouraged to adopt the following tools which proved to be effective both in Bapco and other organisations:

1. Boost, which looks at modifying/mitigating at-risk behaviours of Bapco and contractor employees

2. Osool Bapco, which outlines the basic health and safety rules to follow

3. The four-keys to safety, which defines how we integrate our daily business activities into safety

4. Stop Work Authority, which is a tool that empowers Bapco and contractor employees to stop any work which is considered unsafe or has an impact on the environment. - TradeArabia News Service