Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: Oman Society for Petroleum Services (Opal) celebrated the launch of the Unified Defensive Driving Permit for the energy sector under the patronage of Eng. Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals.
The event was held at the W Muscat Hotel in the presence of Sheikh Nasr bin Amer Al Hosani, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour for Labour, Eng. Salem bin Mohammed Al Nuaimi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology for Transport and many executives and heads of member companies.
During the ceremony, companies and committees that contributed to the unified defensive driving permit project for the energy sector were honoured.
It is noteworthy that the Unified Defensive Driving Permit for the energy sector is integrated and recognised driving license for the whole energy sector and allows drivers to drive throughout the sector with a single document that is periodically renewed to ensure commitment to safe driving skills and behaviours to achieve a driving environment free of injuries or accidents.
With Unified Defensive Driving Permit, qualified drivers will be able to drive in all concession areas followed by advanced training and evaluation. This initiative will save operators and contractors time and efforts in training or testing drivers. In addition, annual costs of up to OMR6 million for the sector will be saved.
Another milestone during the ceremony was awarding the winners of member companies with Opal Awards for Best Practices.
After a fair competition between oil institutions and companies, PDO, Schlumberger Oman and Saih Al-Sreya won awards in the Health and Safety category. In the Omanisation category, Occidental of Oman and Al Shawamikh were among the winners. OQ Company, Al Hassan Engineering Company and Al Baraka Oil Services Company were crowned in the category of technical and operational excellence.
In the environmental category, PDO and Oman Cement Company took the crowns. PDO and Petrofac were crowned in the Omani product category. As for the Research and Development category, it went to Daleel Petroleum. In the Energy Transition category, the award went to Petroleum Development Oman.
The Opal Award for Best Practices competition for member companies has shown an honourable competition among the member companies that submitted their projects to the evaluation committee with the amount of 60 projects, of which 24 projects classified by types of companies qualified to the projects of major operating companies, contractors and local community contractors.
