Author(s)

AHMED M. QABAZARD

Abstract

Risk management is a concept which has become very popular in a number of business organizations. Many companies often establish a risk management procedure in their projects for improving the performance and increasing profits. The project construction industry is highly risk prone, with complex and dynamic environments which create an atmosphere of high uncertainties and potential hazards. The project sector is vulnerable to various technical, socio-political and business risks including HSE (health, safety and environment). The track records to cope with these risks have not been very good in the construction industry. As a result, the people working in the project industries bear various failures, such as failure to abide by quality and operational requirements, exceeding cost and uncertain delays in project completion including HSE obligations. The risk based approach or risk management is an important process of project activities which consist of the identification of risks, appropriate assessment, responses with a suitable method for handling risks and then developing strategies to mitigate those risks in compliance with the regulatory objectives and the company’s risk management expectations. This paper covers the concepts of HSE risk management through various risk evaluations, project challenges and effective risk mitigation/reduction practices being followed at Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) – North Kuwait (NK) oil fields – for the one stop solution for all types of hazards and enhancing HSE compliance during any construction project lifecycle. The risk based approach consists of both proactive and reactive control and corrective action that could be applied according to the nature, severity and immediacy of the risk posed, which enables one to be flexible, adaptive and focused to the project HSE demands and ongoing changes in the project plan without affecting contractual HSE obligation. With the above approach, there is a visible improvement in HSE compliance at contractors’ worksites at NK oil fields, which signifies the company’s HSE commitment in its business process.

Keywords

risk management, project risk