Heritage Petroleum CEO: Safety a priority

HERITAGE Petroleum CEO Erik Keskula says safety is a core value at the company.

He was addressing a meeting the company held at its staff club in Pointe-a-Pierre on October 10.

The meeting was co-hosted with the Centre for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS).

Keskula said, “Safety is a core value at Heritage. We recognise the importance of ensuring safety across the board, particularly as it extends to our contractors and sub-contractors.

“This is evidenced in our semi-annual contractor meeting, which was held at this very location earlier this year, where we reinforced the importance of leading by example, implementing accountability, transparency and ‘stop work’ within our processes to ensure everyone has a collective responsibility for safety.”

He said this was “the operational discipline that we must enforce, and which we must expect from everyone as we reinforce a process safety culture within our industry.”

To prevent major incidents at industrial facilities, he continued, “We must ensure that our chemicals, equipment, and people all operate in harmony.”

Where shortfalls happen, Keskula said, “We must reflect on our close-out reports, conduct our postmortem reviews, and develop the lessons learned from incidents to advance process safety.

“These must be shared and the processes strengthened to ensure that the learn and grow culture continues.”

Keskula spoke about the need to focus on adaptive and resilient safety-management systems that are flexible to changing operational conditions and technological advancements, including cyber security.

“Cyber threats are a reality, and as systems become more interconnected, there is an increased impact of cyber attacks. Integrating cyber security into our process safety protocols is therefore critical at every stage of change.

“Companies that proactively adapt to these trends will be better positioned to manage risks, protect their workforce, and maintain operational integrity in an increasingly complex and interconnected industry. “

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