Aramco receives international recognition for safety initiatives

The Loss Prevention Department (LPD) has been recognized by the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) for its efforts to advance safety and promote inclusion in the workplace.

The IChemE Global Awards celebrates excellence and are considered the world’s most prestigious chemical engineering awards.

Two of the department’s initiatives were selected for commendation in the categories of Process Safety and Diversity and Inclusion. These initiatives were titled: “Developing an Innovative Hybrid Approach for Planning Land Use around Saudi Aramco Facilities,” and “Developing a Flame Resistant Shirt for Women,” respectively. A third initiative, an effort at driving excellence across the company was also selected as a finalist in the Process Safety category. 

The LPD initiatives competed against more than 100 submissions from top-tier global organizations. 

We are extremely pleased to receive this commendable recognition by such a reputable multinational institute.
— Ghassan G. Abulfaraj, LPD manager

Safety, comfort, and modesty

With a growing number of females joining our workforce, Aramco is making every effort to promote employees’ empowerment, emphasizing inclusion and diversity in the workplace. 

LPD recognized a need to provide both safety and comfort to female employees in the field, and developed an initiative to provide customized flame-resistant clothing designs. LPD partnered with chemicals company DuPont to create a design that improved comfort and maintained safety requirements while meeting cultural requirements. 

Safe land release

The company has traditionally reserved land around its hydrocarbon facilities to maintain an exclusion zone for safety purposes. This approach was driven by regulations, but did not reflect the company’s efforts to invest in effective process safety management practices. 

With growing demand for land release, and to avoid potential costs associated with land reservation, a new approach was developed to manage land use around Aramco’s hydrocarbon facilities more effectively. 

The Hybrid Approach for Land Use Planning is a risk-based approach that allows for the release of land for different purposes, including industrial, low residential and high residential areas. The land use is determined by the risk levels posed by a facility. 

Process safety practices

Recognizing that effective process safety management is the key to controlling any risk posed by our operations, LPD spearheaded Aramco’s Process Safety Excellence initiative. This initiative is a customized effort based on a comprehensive assessment of the company’s process safety practices, and designed to provide high impact solutions to process safety challenges at both corporate and site levels.