The Bahrain Petroleum Company

2007 Robert W. Campbell Award Recipient

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Bahrain Petroleum Company BSC (c) is one of the largest and the oldest in the Middle East dating back 1936. BAPCO refines over 270,000 barrels of crude every day of about one-sixth originates from Bahrain fields; the remainder is pumped from Saudi Arabia in pipelines extending 27 kilometers over land and a further 27 kilometers under the sea before reaching the Northwest of Bahrain. Being the largest employer in Bahrain, BAPCO operates refinery, tank farm, wharves, marketing terminals, and shipping docks, oil wells, Awali Village and all infrastructure and support facilities across the island.

BAPCO senior management believe that extraordinary business performance starts with extraordinary Safety, Health & Environment (SH&E) performance. Creating a safe working environment for employees, contractors and customers is a vital part of the Company management strategy which will later lead to one of BAPCO´s ultimate goals of Operational Excellence. BAPCO support the value of SH&E across the Company with a dynamic process oriented toward eliminating injuries, ill-health and environment impact. The dedication to SH&E is a value incorporated into the daily planning, design and implementation of processes. BAPCO continuously improve SH&S processes to stay current with new issues, technology and regulatory requirements. BAPCO´s main focus is to integrate SH&E into all operations.

Most of BAPCO´s SH&E programmes are non-regulatory in nature and led by senior management. This demonstrates how senior management places importance to SH&E and treats it as a core value.

The Industrial Safety Committee (ISC) is the overall in-charge of SH&E management within the organization. This committee is headed by a most senior leader and made up of senior management. ISC lead the implementation and sustainability of SH&E programmes and ensures they are aligned with the business operations dimension.

As a result of efficient and effective SH&E management, BAPCO now maintains a more reliable processes and reduced injuries, ill-health and environmental impact. This is evident in the international SH&E awards BAPCO has received and in operating 11 million employee-hours with no loss time injury.

There are a number of challenges facing the company in its quest of Striving for Excellence in managing SH&E. These challenges include addressing human factors to prevent human related incidents, and merging Contractors SH&E performance with that of BAPCO. 

BUSINESS PROFILE

The Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) BSC (c) – (ISIC: Section B, Division 06, Group 061, Class 0610 and Section C, and Division 19, Group 192, Class 1920) one of the largest and the oldest in the Middle East dating back 1936 – refines over 270,000 barrels of crude every day. About one-sixth of this crude originates from Bahrain Fields; the remainder is pumped from Saudi Arabia in pipelines extending 27 kilometers over land and a further 27 kilometers under the sea before reaching the Northwest of Bahrain. BAPCO operates Bahrain Refinery, Sitra Tank farm, Sitra Wharves and Sea Island shipping docks, oil wells, Awali Village and all infrastructure and support facilities across the island.

The company; the largest in Bahrain; reported record profits in 2005 and was responsible for 70% of government revenues to the national economy. Sales of crude and refined products totaled 152 million tones.  Retail sales reached 7.4 million barrels and there were 4.3 million barrels of jet fuel sales.

There are a total of 25 processing units at this refinery with a capacity to refine various products including liquefied petroleum gas (lpg), naphtha, gasoline, kerosene, aviation turbine fuel, low sulfur diesel oil, heavy lube distillate, fuel oil, and asphalt. The prime customers for such products are based in the Middle East, India, the Far East, South East Asia and Africa which makes up 95% of the refined products are exported.

There are more than 170 storage tanks at different sites with a total capacity of over 14 million barrels.

BAPCO is the largest employer in the country employing 3800 full-time employees and more than 1300 contractors which reach 2500 contactors during shutdowns. The Company is pressing ahead with its ambitious human resource development programme to ensure that the skills of its workforce match the technological and business demands of this new century. In addition, its scholarship and sponsorship programmes annually support more than 150 students in higher education in Bahrain and abroad.

Protection of the environment continues to be a major focus of the Company´s policy. In line with best practice, BAPCO has created an EHS Policy that integrates the functions of Occupational Health, Industrial Safety and Environment. 

There are three major challenges facing BAPCO in managing Safety, Health & Environmental (SH&E) issues. Firstly, is addressing environmental impact created by an aging refinery.  Secondly, is aligning contractor large workforce with BACPO SH&E management system and finally tackling first aid cases which are attributed to human behavior.