Health Safety & Environment (HSE)

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Health plays a crucial role in any organization as it impacts our employees’ wellbeing, productivity, and overall performance. In BGC we focus on a healthy workforce to reduce absenteeism, increase employee satisfaction, and fosters a positive work environment.

Our employee well-being is essential in our Company as it fosters a sense of security and care for our employees leading to increased job satisfaction and morale.

Healthy staff means a safer workplace which eventually results in reducing medical expenses, insurance claims and worker compensation costs for the Company and improves outcomes for both our employees and the business, creating a better employee value proposition, and a caring work environment.

The health and safety of our staff and contractors are of utmost importance. BGC, like many organizations, takes the necessary steps to protect the health of our colleagues and introduce preventive measures at the workplace. BGC works in collaboration with the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Basrah Health Directorate and the Basrah Crisis Cell, and follows health mandates accordingly to ensure our staff and contractors adhere to approved health regulations.

MEDICAL SERVICES AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Occupational Health focuses on protecting the health, welfare BGC’s employees and contractors at the workplace, improving working conditions. We continue to raise awareness amongst employees to do the right thing, aiming to protecting them from hazards and ensure compliance with relevant legislation and company standards.

In BGC, we are also paying greater attention to first aid and medical emergency response as well as Fitness to Work, Health Risk Assessment and contractors’ health management. We also provide advice, information, training and education on occupational health and hygiene, as well as surveillance of workers’ health in relation to work.

In BGC, Safety is at the core of our operations – focusing on the Safety for our people, our assets, and the environment. Our objective is to support enhancing our Safety culture and our Goal Zero journey whereby our employees and contractors can go home safely to their families every day. Various tools and training are given to our employees to improve their knowledge on Safety and avoidable incidents, enhance skills and capabilities and encourage a mindset of intervention where necessary to help employees do the right thing. At BGC we aim at minimizing hazards and have a safe work environment.

Each year we celebrate Safety Day to emphasis on the importance of Safety which should be close to our minds and hearts in our daily activities and imbedded in our daily behaviors to enable us to build a stronger safety culture.
In 2021, BGC completed a whole year without tier-1 and tier-2 leaks – a testament of a strong Process Safety performance.

Road Safety: Driving in Iraq comes with considerable risk – Iraq is ranked the 7th country in the world for road traffic fatalities, and road safety risk is considered to be one of the highest risk exposures to our BGC staff. In BGC, road safety is managed through rigid controls and on drivers’ competencies, vehicle inspections and compliance with our Life Saving Rules (seatbelts, no speeding, no mobile phone, journey management plan and more).

PROCESS SAFETY

Process safety means making sure our facilities are well designed, safely operated and properly maintained.

At BGC we have access to extensive process safety standards which focus upon how to design and maintain complex installations like refineries or oil and gas production sites.

A team of independent, senior internal experts – specialised in process safety – is in place at BGC to check that these standards are followed and implemented.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

The BGC Emergency Response Department takes a comprehensive, all hazards approach to ensuring the Company is ready to respond in the event of emergency incidents.

By applying world class emergency management principles and resources, BGC aims to ensure the company can provide a fully integrated response to any emergency situation.

We currently operate five Fire Stations across our operational area, which are staffed by more than 240 personnel. We also have a fleet of 11 vehicles assigned to 24/7 emergency response and five ambulances servicing three on-site medical centres.

Global warming remains a big challenge in our world today and a key focus area. Many organizations in the O&G and other industries have been focusing on the Paris agreement and Conference of the Parties (COP28) whereby parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) convene annually to address climate change and the possible collaborative efforts to limit global warming and pursue efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5C, reduce gas flaring globally, minimize environmental impact and conserve natural resources.

It is estimated that Iraq’s raw gas production is at 2,875 billion cubic feet p/day (Bcf/d) – of which 1,594 million scf/d is being flared. This represents $3.5 billion loss annually, not to mention the adverse climate and environmental consequences, from this gas produced as a byproduct of crude oil production. This places Iraq as the second largest gas flaring country in the world after Russia. (Source: the Iraq Energy Institute IEI 2022).

The Basrah region still flares around 1 billion cubic feet p/d
, wasting gas that could be otherwise harnessed and could potentially provide electricity for over 4 million Iraqi homes (or over 15 million people).

Our aim in BGC is to capture the wasted gas flared, reduce CO2e emissions that is impacting climate change, and protect the environment. BGC is regarded as one of the largest gas flaring reduction projects in the world, and part of the solution. We capture gas that is currently being flared from the Licensing Round 1 (LR1) oil fields in Southern Iraq.

Since commencement of operations, from 2013 to end of 2023 – BGC has prevented more than 160 million tonnes of CO2e emissions from entering the atmosphere. BGC has turned the previously wasted gas into cleaner energy, replacing existing energy sources, and greatly reducing Iraq’s overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is equivalent to removing 3.5 million cars off the road for the same period.

Once our flagship project – Basrah NGL plant is fully onstream it will potentially further reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 million tons per annum.

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil (MoO) continue its efforts in reducing flaring in Iraq and established a goal to “end the burning of gas entirely” in favor of gas utilization. In 2016, the World Bank awarded the MoO with a certificate of appreciation for its efforts.

BGC launched the Work Management Procedures (WMP) manual in 2021 which communicates our existing HSE requirements, best practices and focuses on what is really needed at the work front to ensure the safety of our employees and contractors. To read more you can access the WMP on this LINK

Health plays a crucial role in any organization as it impacts our employees’ wellbeing, productivity, and overall performance. In BGC we focus on a healthy workforce to reduce absenteeism, increase employee satisfaction, and fosters a positive work environment.

Our employee well-being is essential in our Company as it fosters a sense of security and care for our employees leading to increased job satisfaction and morale.

Healthy staff means a safer workplace which eventually results in reducing medical expenses, insurance claims and worker compensation costs for the Company and improves outcomes for both our employees and the business, creating a better employee value proposition, and a caring work environment.

The health and safety of our staff and contractors are of utmost importance. BGC, like many organizations, takes the necessary steps to protect the health of our colleagues and introduce preventive measures at the workplace. BGC works in collaboration with the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Basrah Health Directorate and the Basrah Crisis Cell, and follows health mandates accordingly to ensure our staff and contractors adhere to approved health regulations.

MEDICAL SERVICES AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Occupational Health focuses on protecting the health, welfare BGC’s employees and contractors at the workplace, improving working conditions. We continue to raise awareness amongst employees to do the right thing, aiming to protecting them from hazards and ensure compliance with relevant legislation and company standards.

In BGC, we are also paying greater attention to first aid and medical emergency response as well as Fitness to Work, Health Risk Assessment and contractors’ health management. We also provide advice, information, training and education on occupational health and hygiene, as well as surveillance of workers’ health in relation to work.

In BGC, Safety is at the core of our operations – focusing on the Safety for our people, our assets, and the environment. Our objective is to support enhancing our Safety culture and our Goal Zero journey whereby our employees and contractors can go home safely to their families every day. Various tools and training are given to our employees to improve their knowledge on Safety and avoidable incidents, enhance skills and capabilities and encourage a mindset of intervention where necessary to help employees do the right thing. At BGC we aim at minimizing hazards and have a safe work environment.

Each year we celebrate Safety Day to emphasis on the importance of Safety which should be close to our minds and hearts in our daily activities and imbedded in our daily behaviors to enable us to build a stronger safety culture.
In 2021, BGC completed a whole year without tier-1 and tier-2 leaks – a testament of a strong Process Safety performance.

Road Safety: Driving in Iraq comes with considerable risk – Iraq is ranked the 7th country in the world for road traffic fatalities, and road safety risk is considered to be one of the highest risk exposures to our BGC staff. In BGC, road safety is managed through rigid controls and on drivers’ competencies, vehicle inspections and compliance with our Life Saving Rules (seatbelts, no speeding, no mobile phone, journey management plan and more).

PROCESS SAFETY

Process safety means making sure our facilities are well designed, safely operated and properly maintained.

At BGC we have access to extensive process safety standards which focus upon how to design and maintain complex installations like refineries or oil and gas production sites.

A team of independent, senior internal experts – specialised in process safety – is in place at BGC to check that these standards are followed and implemented.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

The BGC Emergency Response Department takes a comprehensive, all hazards approach to ensuring the Company is ready to respond in the event of emergency incidents.

By applying world class emergency management principles and resources, BGC aims to ensure the company can provide a fully integrated response to any emergency situation.

We currently operate five Fire Stations across our operational area, which are staffed by more than 240 personnel. We also have a fleet of 11 vehicles assigned to 24/7 emergency response and five ambulances servicing three on-site medical centres.

Global warming remains a big challenge in our world today and a key focus area. Many organizations in the O&G and other industries have been focusing on the Paris agreement and Conference of the Parties (COP28) whereby parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) convene annually to address climate change and the possible collaborative efforts to limit global warming and pursue efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5C, reduce gas flaring globally, minimize environmental impact and conserve natural resources.

It is estimated that Iraq’s raw gas production is at 2,875 billion cubic feet p/day (Bcf/d) – of which 1,594 million scf/d is being flared. This represents $3.5 billion loss annually, not to mention the adverse climate and environmental consequences, from this gas produced as a byproduct of crude oil production. This places Iraq as the second largest gas flaring country in the world after Russia. (Source: the Iraq Energy Institute IEI 2022).

The Basrah region still flares around 1 billion cubic feet p/d
, wasting gas that could be otherwise harnessed and could potentially provide electricity for over 4 million Iraqi homes (or over 15 million people).

Our aim in BGC is to capture the wasted gas flared, reduce CO2e emissions that is impacting climate change, and protect the environment. BGC is regarded as one of the largest gas flaring reduction projects in the world, and part of the solution. We capture gas that is currently being flared from the Licensing Round 1 (LR1) oil fields in Southern Iraq.

Since commencement of operations, from 2013 to end of 2023 – BGC has prevented more than 160 million tonnes of CO2e emissions from entering the atmosphere. BGC has turned the previously wasted gas into cleaner energy, replacing existing energy sources, and greatly reducing Iraq’s overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is equivalent to removing 3.5 million cars off the road for the same period.

Once our flagship project – Basrah NGL plant is fully onstream it will potentially further reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 million tons per annum.

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil (MoO) continue its efforts in reducing flaring in Iraq and established a goal to “end the burning of gas entirely” in favor of gas utilization. In 2016, the World Bank awarded the MoO with a certificate of appreciation for its efforts.

BGC launched the Work Management Procedures (WMP) manual in 2021 which communicates our existing HSE requirements, best practices and focuses on what is really needed at the work front to ensure the safety of our employees and contractors. To read more you can access the WMP on this LINK