Accidents, Incidents, Emergencies
In accordance with Russian and international standards, the Company assesses health and safety risks at all stages of project implementation. NOVATEK has in place a Risk Map and a procedure for identifying and assessing hazards and risks as well as environmental and social aspects.
The Company operates more than 200 hazardous production facilities. Industrial safety management systems and industrial safety declarations have been developed for Class 1 and 2 hazardous industrial facilities.
Accident and incident prevention measures
Emergency prevention and response action plans are in place at all NOVATEK facilities.
At least once every three years, comprehensive emergency training exercises are held to confirm that operators are prepared to contain and respond to an oil or petroleum product spill of the maximum estimated volume.
The Company interacts with local authorities on emergency response issues.
For the prompt transmission of information in the event of a threat or emergencies, NOVATEK facilities have approved control, warning and communication schemes. Information is promptly transmitted to the unified duty and dispatch services of local governments, which in turn inform the local population.
Fire safety
Subsidiaries operating hazardous facilities are protected by 30 professional emergency response and rescue teams. Going forward, we are planning to build standalone buildings for fire stations and set up additional rescue teams.
The Company conducts emergency preparedness checks on a regular basis.
Pipeline integrity
Although its pipelines are relatively new, NOVATEK consistently takes measures to mitigate the risk of pipeline accidents.
The Сompany analyzes the risks, taking into account corrosion, wear, subsidence of pipelines and other factors that can lead to accidents. Moreover, the Company maintains liability insurance for the operation of all pipelines. The insurance covers damage caused by an accident at a hazardous facility (damage to third parties) and the risk of environmental damage from accidents.
To ensure the safe operation of its pipelines, NOVATEK takes a number of preventive measures, including the use of special corrosion-resistant pipeline solutions and leak detectors. The Company also regularly conducts integrated in-line diagnostics; found defects are immediately eliminated.
These measures ensure the pipelines operate reliably and minimize the number of failures.
Drilling safety
Design documentation for the construction of wells is developed in strict accordance with technical regulations and standards effective in Russia. Only qualified contractors are allowed to perform well interventions. A competitive procedure is used to select drilling contractors, which includes, among other things, an evaluation of their ability to ensure industrial, environmental, and fire safety as well as occupational health.
NOVATEK also adheres to international best practices for offshore well management. Coastal operations follow the principle of delineating responsibility. The operator, the Scientific and Technical Center, and the corporate center each have a responsible employee appointed for each well.
Construction, logging, and testing of any well is accompanied by continuous monitoring of all key parameters with advanced technology and software, both directly on the rig and remotely.
Spill prevention
NOVATEK takes all possible preventive measures to avoid spills and also develops spill response plans as part of its risk management.
When developing oil spill response plans, forecast areas of oil and petroleum product spills are determined (subject to design spill prevention solutions), including a description of the possible nature of the environmental impact and impact on local communities. The Company also calculates whether its own and/or third-party emergency rescue services and/or teams are sufficient for handling the maximum estimated volume of spills. Once every three years, the Company conducts comprehensive spill localization and response drills, involving government authorities.
Occupational health and safety at contractors’ facilities
NOVATEK monitors compliance with OHS standards by contractors engaged at its production facilities.
NOVATEK has in place a Contractor Access System. Its key elements include a system to check the level of training of, and issue certificates to, employees at the pre-qualification audit phase as well as pre-qualification requirements for assessing contractors’ occupational health and safety services, including the availability of all necessary documentation, equipment of an appropriate quality, employee training, and timely implementation of all necessary occupational health audits.
Contractors are obliged to participate in OHS incident response plans through their contracts.
The Company’s production facilities operate registration systems for contractor employees. Contractor employees are also entered in the register of construction, commissioning, and operating area passes as well as in the induction briefing logbook.
NOVATEK conducts annual qualification audits to improve work quality and monitor compliance with all OHS requirements.
