Improving HES Contractor Safety Performance in Western Venezuela

Improving HES Contractors Safety Performance in Western Venezuela describes how the achievement of world class performance in contractor safety is one of the key ChevronTexaco Operational Excellence goals. In Western Venezuela ChevronTexaco operates two projects: Boscan, a large onshore heavy oil field and LL652, a light oil and gas field in Lake Maracaibo. These fields have a typical workforce of 400 ChevronTexaco/PDVSA employees and 1,500 contractors, who provide a full range of often highly technical, specialized support. The full engagement and involvement of the contractors, the development of an aligned program and sharing of best practices were determined to be the critical success factors required to make a step change improvement in contractor safety performance. In 2001, LL652 established a contractor safety council involving all of it's contractors. The council meets monthly, with full management representation from both ChevronTexaco and the contractor companies, to identify areas of improvement and share solutions across the project as a whole. Although the council is facilitated by ChevronTexaco, the agenda, discussion and actions arising are determined by the contractors. The success of the Council is such that LL652 has now gone over 2 years without a loss time incident (LTI). In 2002 this concept was extended to Boscan and three field based committees were set up to focus on contractor safety. One committee for each work area in Capital Projects, Operation, Maintenance and Drilling. Each committee consists of two people from each contractor in that work area plus two from ChevronTexaco. Each committee is chaired by a representative of a contracting company and meets each month. ChevronTexaco facilitate but do not lead the meetings. The opportunity to discuss common issues, share statistics, and programs has empowered the safety supervisors and raised awareness of the importance of safety within the contractor management teams. The committees have now developed to take on their own identity, they have their own logos and T-shirts, and have initiated cross-training programs in which one contractor company with a specific strength trains personnel from the other companies in that strength. Examples include: Pride who have trained in BBS (Behavioral Based Safety); BJ training in pinch points, Baroid in MSDS and Schlumberger and Siemogas have provided training in defensive driving. In 2003 this was extended to a program of planned reciprocal cross-inspections in which one contractor inspects another working in the field and visa versa. To ensure cross communication, sharing and learning across the groups, there is a monthly Contractor Safety Council which receives updates from representatives from each work area committee. The success of these committees has been a main contributor to the improved safety performance in Boscan, which has now gone over 2 million contractor hours since an LTI. ChevronTexaco in Western Venezuela is approaching 5 million hours without a LTI. In Summary - In ChevronTexaco Western Venezuela "Nadie Se Lesiona" or in English "No-one Gets Hurt".