Yemisi Izuora
Nipco plc, an integrated indigenous downstream operator has won the best safety compliant terminal award for the fourth consecutive year at the preeminent Nigeria Ports Authority honours’ event for tank farm and jetty operators in the nation’s coastline in 2014.
The HSE recognition provides veritable avenue for the authority to showcase role models in the oil and maritime industry that have been operating within the context of international best practices in their different fields of endeavour.
Speaking at the event, NPA HSE committee chairman, Engr Emmanuel Abazie listed the notable achievements of the company to include zero fire incident nor fatalities in 2014 ,participation in fighting fire incident at Apapa Bulk Terminal premises on 4th April ,2014 and consistent high score in HSE audit during the year .
In the area of HSE facility upgrade, the NPA Safety chief said Nipco purchased additional foam fire tender with 5,000 litres of water and 1,000 litres of foam capacity in March, 2014 aside from installing an 8km range emergency alarm system to effectively muster people together during sudden crisis.
According to him, safety is first in every endeavour and without it nothing is safe including port efficiency, service delivery, and return on investment.
Safety Chief ,Nipco plc, Mr Vitalis Ofoegbu who received the award on behalf of the company dedicated it to the giant strides of the company’s Managing Director, Mr Venkatapathy Venkataraman for his peerless support to HSE elated activities in the last four years .
He noted that the fact that we had retain the awards in the last four years that he assumed the headship of the company is not by accident but for the painstaking nature the issue of safety is being handled in the organization .
Reacting to the honour, the MD, Mr Venkatapathy said it is a good omen for the company stressing that the company had as one of its cardinal policy to make compliance to best HSE practices an important facets in its overall operations.
He noted that the continuous feat of the company in this realm did not come as a surprise adding that the Nipco family have always taken safety as a culture even beyond the work place.
According to him, all through the year 2014, the company had conducted its businesses with high level of integrity and candour, which had mainly accounted for the plethora of recognitions by stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
He stated that priority attention will continuously be given to safety and other ancillary things in the operations of the company in our quest to remain a benchmark in the hydrocarbon industry.
The HSE Awards is an annual event of NPA with the objectives of recognizing excellence in a bid to raise safety consciousness and also promote the spirit of healthy competition within the context of global best,practices.