Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, has urged the public and private sectors to invest more in research and development aimed at promoting safety.
The oil company noted that such investments should cut across the various sectors of the economy as is the case for the oil/gas and aviation sectors, among others.
Its Operations Director, Effiong Okon, stated this at the Nigeria Professional Development Conference and Exhibition in Lagos. It was organised by the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), Nigerian Chapter. The theme of the event was ‘Sustainable safety for national development.
According to Okon, safety is at the forefront of Seplat’s activities, which have enabled it to conduct its activities across the country with minimal footprint. “We approach safety, using the people, environment, asset and reputation model incorporated in our ‘safety first’ policy. We only execute projects that promote continuous reduction of environmental impact in our operations,” he said.
He added: “We track offshoots from our operations and strive to reduce adverse effects from our facilities. Our internal use of gas flared reduced by over 95 per cent between 2011 and 2017.
“Seplat has incorporated key programmes across all its facilities to achieve flares out by 2020 in line with keeping the environment safe. We comply with all regulatory requirements and benchmark our performance with international standards.”
Okon said the company has seen continuous decline in safety incidents over the years and would continue to deploy safety training and coaching to hone safety consciousness and skills of its local contractors.
Progressively managing challenges around establishment of support infrastructure for safety management, he noted, remained a priority to the company, adding that: “Since the taking over of our current assets, third-party interference on Seplat’s infrastructure had been significantly minimised.”
Source: The Nation