The projects for the Olmeca Refinery have set new safety records, thanks to exemplary levels of teamwork.

The end of February marked the first anniversary of work at the Dos Bocas Refinery and Precast Workshop projects—a full year with no lost-day accidents, following a total of 9.3 and 1.1 million labor hours, respectively, at each project.

The team working on the Cogeneration Plant was not far behind, notching up 2.7 million labor hours with no lost-day accidents, achieved in just four months after the last incapacitating accident.

The three projects underway as part of the work to build the new Olmeca Refinery in Dos Bocas, Tabasco, totaled 13 million labor hours with no lost-day accidents, thanks to the efforts of all the employees involved.   

Israel Escárcega, QHSE Manager at the Dos Bocas projects, commented that, despite the challenges and difficulties the team has faced during the construction of the refinery, "we have managed to get this far by working closely as a team, making the most of our range of management tools, as they are extremely effective when well applied."

Julio Garcia, QHSE Head at the Refinery Project, affirmed that, "no great results are ever achieved by oneself, or through isolated actions, as everybody’s discipline and involvement are required." He urged the team to continue working together to achieve the “zero accidents” goal throughout the rest of the project.

Abril Pérez Mariel, Site Manager at the Water Demineralization Unit for the Cogeneration project, said that, “Safety and accident prevention are an ongoing priority for us.” For her, teamwork is vital as, "All project leaders need to train and keep workers informed about the scope of the risks that their tasks entail, as well as ensure they have all the means necessary to avoid them."

Raúl Ymaz, QHSE Head at the Cogeneration Project, added that, “We are working on a challenging project with very tight deadlines, compounded by a large number of personnel exposed to risk, a significant intake of new hires, generational differences, and a cohort of middle managers who are new or have not been with the company for very long.” He added that, because of all of this, they had carried out “A highly rigorous induction course for new hires, complemented by specific courses in the main critical activities, which was given at the outset. This meant that personnel were able to begin work with a strong basis in safety, and in the field they work hard to identify and correct behaviors, retrain those who commit deviations, evaluate those people who don’t want to change and apply the requisite operational discipline.”

This level of constant attention to safety and people’s behaviors has meant that today the organization has sharpened its focus on prevention, identifying deviations and anticipating possible difficulties as well as encouraging people to work in coordination when tackling daily tasks.

Escárcega mentioned that the Olmeca Refinery project is currently going through a complex phase, as “We have to interact with more stakeholders, such as contractors, experts, different construction people, as well as Commissioning and Operations.”

In the light of this situation, he stated that, “13 million hours is an excellent number to remember. This will help to foster greater commitment to continue work in those areas we identify as strengths. It will help us improve our processes where we identify problems or areas of opportunity and support efforts to maintain operational discipline in pursuit of our common goal: zero accidents, zero damage.”

Leopoldo Ventura, Site Manager of the Precast Workshop, explained that starting this project from scratch was a major challenge as they had to begin with new groups of workers, train them to meet the Company’s rigorous safety standards and encourage them to adopt Techint E&C's philosophy as their own. "Efforts have been aimed at training our staff, which includes not only courses, talks and meetings, but also bringing about change in each employee’s attitude towards safety. The idea is to make them understand the importance of taking care of each other at work, of looking out for oneself and each other, which even has an impact on their families,” he said.

Julio Garcia added that, "These safety records we’ve achieved consolidate all the work we’ve been doing to foster a culture of safety prevention and demonstrate the strength of our system. Also, these numbers heighten our responsibility to maintain them until the end of the project, mostly during the final phase of mechanical completion and pre-commissioning that is so complex."

Today, we take a break to applaud everyone for their efforts, before continuing with the actions that allow us to continue adding hours to our score that are “Zero Accidents, Zero Damages and Zero Personal Injuries.”