Making oil and gas safety a culture is one of the challenges in oil and gas business activities
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has prepared a roadmap for safety culture in the oil and gas industry in an effort to mitigate the risk of work accidents.

Director of Oil and Gas Engineering and Environment at the ministry's Directorate General of Oil and Gas, Mirza Mahendra, noted in a statement, here, Saturday, that the oil and gas industry is a business activity that has a high risk of accidents.

Hence, safety issues must receive special attention, he noted.

"The government is committed to realizing oil and gas safety, among others, by continuing to increase knowledge and understanding as well as cooperating with business entities in cultivating oil and gas safety," he emphasized.

According to Mahendra, a safety culture must be built in all oil and gas companies operating in Indonesia.

Several accidents in oil and gas activities, which led to fatalities recently, indicates that the safety culture has not been well-developed.

"As supervisors of oil and gas safety, we continue to strengthen the safety culture in the oil and gas industry," he stated.

Head of the Independent Team for Controlling Oil and Gas Safety (TIPKM) Waluyo expressed his support for the government's efforts to improve oil and gas safety.

"Making oil and gas safety a culture is one of the challenges in oil and gas business activities. TIPKM supports and synergizes with the government to create an oil and gas safety culture," he remarked.

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The roadmap development team has established a framework that covers the definition of safety culture in the oil and gas industry, classification of the culture's maturity levels, influencing elements, tools to measure the maturity level, portrait of current conditions, timeline of implementation and achievement, as well as competency of maturity level assessor.

According to the framework, the oil and gas safety culture is an amalgamation of standard values, morals, perceptions, competencies, and behavioral norms that can be accepted by all individuals in the organization that determine the commitment and style as well as ability to realize oil and gas safety.

Meanwhile, classification of the maturity level of oil and gas safety culture is divided into five levels: level 1 (emerging), level 2 (managing), level 3 (involving), level 4 (co-operating), and level 5 (continually improving).

The roadmap is expected to be completed in 2023 and implemented in 2024.

The target of 100-percent minimum maturity level 3 is expected to be achieved in 2026.

The target of minimum maturity level 4 is expected to reach 75 percent by 2028 and minimum maturity level 5 to reach 75 percent by 2030.

Oil and gas safety encompasses environmental safety, installation safety, worker safety, and public safety.

Indicators of maintained oil and gas safety culture include no environmental pollution, no damage to installations, no work accidents, and no loss to society.

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Translator: Kelik Dewanto, Sri Haryati
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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