Health and Safety
The Company’s activities with respect to environmentally safe production have earned the community’s appreciation as well as national recognition. In 2010, NOVATEK won an award at the “100 Best Organizations in Russia. Ecology and Industrial Safety” competition (St. Petersburg) and was the winner of the Sixth Russian National Competition “Russian Nature Conservation Leader – 2010” (Kremlin, Moscow), where the CEO of OAO NOVATEK was awarded the Medal of Honor for Environmental Safety.
A key component of the Company’s health and safety policy is implicit recognition that society, the State, our business partners, shareholders and our other stakeholders have the right to obtain full and reliable information on the state of “Health and Safety” at the Company’s production sites.
In 2010, the Company developed and approved plans and measures to improve working conditions and ensure safety in the workplace. The plans provide for regulatory, procedural and technical support of safe working conditions and for the organization of an occupational health training system.
During the implementation of these plans in 2010, we made a study of the working conditions and hazardous production factors in the workplace. Based on this, we are systematically certifying employees’ workplaces for conformance with international labor organization standards and the requirements of Russian legislation.
Following a dialog between the Company’s managers, unions and employees in 2010, a series of collective agreements were signed ensuring that Company employees are provided with personal and group protective equipment and compensation for harm caused to an employee by an occupational disease or other damage to health associated with performance of his or her duties.
In 2010, the number of specialists undergoing industrial safety training and certification doubled. Employees are trained in safe work methods under specially developed programs, regardless of the nature of work, the employees’ work experience, education or qualifications. Training is provided both within the Company and at specialized educational institutions.
In order to identify shortcomings in managing health and safety practices, and promptly eliminate them at NOVATEK’s facilities, supervisory committees have been set up at the facilities to carry out internal audits of working conditions and to determine compliance with work safety standards and regulations.
Despite all our efforts, we did record accidents in 2010. To prevent similar incidents, unscheduled audits of the emergency response and preparedness of facilities and operating personnel have been carried out. Our efforts to ensure industrial safety are based on the results of an assessment and analysis of risks caused by the multi-variable effect of process operations during hydrocarbon production and processing. In 2010, we worked to improve the quantitative assessment of risks associated with our production activities, prepare declarations of industrial safety, conduct expert examinations of hazardous production facilities, create manufacturing risk identification systems, and implement health and safety inspection methods.
In recognizing the Company’s liabilities associated with operating hazardous production facilities in areas of extreme natural conditions and difficult access, we are planning to increase efforts toward reducing the risks of accidents and minimizing their consequences. Plans for accident and emergency response and containment at gas and gas condensate production, storage and transportation facilities were analyzed and revised during the reporting period. NOVATEK’s goal is to develop uniform approaches to organizing emergency response and containment methods and coordinate the actions of all departments and divisions. The emergency response and containment plans call for organizing and carrying out accident prevention measures and developing an action algorithm for operating personnel to eliminate potential accidents.