Qatalum setting higher HSE standard

“It’s a great challenge for us to make the contractors who are building the plant think HSE in their everyday work. They have a different culture than what we are used to,” says Thor-Ole Riiser, manager at the Qatalum construction site.

SITE MANAGER: Thor-Ole Riiser says that Hydro Projects, which is in charge of building Qatalum for Hydro and Qatar Petroleum, will expand its HSE organization. (Photo: Øyvind Breivik)

Several near accidents

Since February 2007, more than 200,000 trucks have been driving in and out of the construction site where Qatalum shall be completed in late 2009. Every 57 seconds, a truck has been offloading sand and quarry material onto the site to elevate the ground more than two meters and prepare the site where the buildings will rise. This work is now about 90 percent completed, and so far there have been no accidents on the roads to and from the construction site. But at the construction site, some trucks have tipped over, and several serious near accidents have occurred.

SITE AMBULANCE: Melkor Pancho (to the left) and Derrick Calvelo, from Qatar Red Crescent are manning the site ambulance. (Photo: Halvor Molland)

Suspended contractors

Qatalum CEO Truls Gautesen says that the company takes the overall HSE responsibility very seriously and that contractors meet with consequences if they don’t focus enough on safety.

“We have suspended contractors earlier because they didn’t focus enough on HSE, and we have also stopped work on site to gain time to organize properly. That was necessary when we were to drive as many trucks to and from the site as we did,” he says.

“We wish to set a high standard. In addition to having an impact on our reputation, high safety focus and quality delivered are close correlating elements. Thus we put great resources into HSE,” says Gautesen.

When construction moves on to the next phase of the project and the factory buildings start to rise, the number of workers on site will increase dramatically. Construction work will include heavy lifting and work at heights, which traditionally is more frequently related to accidents.

HSE-TEAM: Qatalum CEO, Truls Gautesen (from right) discussing with some of the Qatalum HSE team members, Bernt J. Johansen, Osama Hassan, Ahmed Rahim, Hussain Ebrahim and Belal Rashdan. (Photo: Halvor Molland)

Hiring more HSE staff

Riiser says that Hydro Projects, which is in charge of building Qatalum for Hydro and Qatar Petroleum, will expand its HSE organization soon.

“We have to set high standards, and set the necessary focus to live up to them. To do that we need competent people who can think safety and both help and set demands to the contractors when it comes to this kind of work. Each company that is to do a job on site must have a dedicated HSE-organization and a plan for HSE that must be approved by us. We won’t allow them to start working before that’s in place. Then we have to follow up on their plan, and that’s when it is important to have many eyes out there keeping a close look,” says Riiser.