Occupational Safety

OMV aims to adhere to the highest standards to provide its employees and contractors with a safe workplace. This is not only a moral obligation but also necessary for seamless operations, without costly shutdowns or delays due to incidents.

The OMV Group’s Reporting, Investigation, and Classification of Incidents Standard clearly outlines the systematic approach to be followed (beyond local/national laws) and the regulations and roles, responsibilities when notifying, reporting, investigating, and classifying incidents within the OMV Group, together with identifying appropriate preventive and corrective actions. OMV Group’s HSSE Directive covers all HSSE terms and definitions, including work-related injuries for all OMV Group employees and contractors.

Management and Due Diligence Procedures

Risk Assessments and Audits

Major risks and the respective mitigation measures are evaluated and monitored within the Enterprise-Wide Risk Management (EWRM) process, and documented in a Group-wide database (Active Risk Management System; ARMS). They are reported to top management twice a year or as necessary whenever issues arise. Senior management are directly involved in the review of risks identified as a top priority. Sites are audited regularly based on a Group-wide HSSE audit program. For example, in 2023 we had an HSSE Management System Audit at the Burghausen refinery. The audit showed good implementation and application of the 12 HSSE management elements. Recommendations from the audit contributes to continuous improvement.

Incident Reporting and Investigation

All employees and contractors are encouraged to bring any unsafe conditions and behaviors to the attention of line management in order for them to identify and resolve potential issues that might otherwise lead to future incidents or accidents. We acknowledge these suggestions for improvement submitted by employees and contractors locally.

All incidents, hazards, HSSE walks, audits, findings, and defined actions are reported and tracked within a central HSSE reporting tool (OMV Synergi). Online training is regularly organized via the My Success Factors learning platform to ensure the effective use of the tool, e.g., by highlighting the importance of the quality of data input.

Dashboards for the most significant HSSE data and relevant KPIs (e.g., LTIs, TRIs, HiPos, process safety events, and action status) have been set up and made available to various management levels Group-wide. Since 2016, all Tier 1 and Tier 2 process safety events have been transferred to our centralized reporting tool to enable trend analysis and sharing of findings from past events. Our aim here was to increase awareness of OMV Synergi entries to boost their quality and transparency, and to improve data owner accountability.

We continue to investigate incidents and accidents using the knowledge of our incident investigator pool members and other technical experts. In 2023, we again trained more than 104 colleagues during a one-day incident investigation training session. In addition to the training, a Community of Practice Meeting was organized for incident investigators. This event is used for communicating experiences and findings from incident investigations across the Group.

Our aim regarding incident investigation is to find the root causes of incidents and to carry out suitable and necessary measures to prevent the occurrence of more severe incidents in the future. Here, the focus is not only on incidents that have occurred but also on near misses that, under slightly different circumstances, could have the potential to lead to serious accidents. In parallel, the focus remains on verifying the effectiveness of actions implemented in previous years after severe and high-potential incidents (HiPos), including process safety incidents. In this way, OMV Synergi is updated with information about safety events that have happened over the last few years to help foster learning from past incidents. The incident investigation process has been further developed, and a subprocess to share HSSE information and promote our lessons learned as an organization has also been established. Our Incident Investigation Panel meets quarterly to obtain a clear overview of the whole process and to implement practical measures for its improvement.

Training, Awareness Raising, and Safety Promotion Activities

All staff are required to be familiar with the HSSE Policy, internal HSSE regulations, and relevant legislation. They actively contribute to and further develop HSSE awareness as part of our corporate culture, for example by stopping and reporting unsafe or irresponsible acts and conditions and reporting any incidents and non-compliance. OMV employees at all levels are regularly trained in their roles and responsibilities.

Education and training are important for informing workers and managers about workplace hazards and controls so they can work more safely and be more productive. After the update and Group-wide alignment of our Life-Saving Rules (LSR), we ran an intensive program of face-to-face rollout workshops led by line management to reach all employees and contractor employees. Furthermore, the LSR are presented and discussed regularly during awareness programs, workshops, management walk-arounds, and safety walks, as well as during various meetings. Practical LSR training will be continued and delivered systematically in the Safety Centers, for which the training concept and material have been fully reviewed and updated. Based on this, existing Safety Centers will be redeveloped, and new ones created in 2024.

We believe that promoting an open dialogue and establishing a culture in which health and safety are integrated into every employee’s role are effective ways to empower people to work safely. Workers are engaged in initiating, implementing, evaluating, and improving health and safety programs. They work closely with their managers to find joint solutions to common problems, which helps managers pinpoint issues while motivating and encouraging workers to improve their own safety. To concentrate on quality over quantity in terms of reporting, HSSE walks, safety walks, and action close-outs continued throughout 2023. In addition, efforts to make safety a top priority in the minds of employees were continued. More attention is focused on improving the HSSE walks and safety walks by encouraging open dialogue while they’re in progress. This promotes understanding of the challenges in the operating fields and increases trust between the workforce and management.

Focus on Contractor Safety

The safety of our contractors is just as important as the safety of our own employees. For this reason, we have established processes that require contractors to work according to our standards. Our Contractor HSSE Management Process begins when we issue the scope of work with information about HSSE requirements and the HSSE key performance indicators (KPIs). The process continues through the tender stage with the HSSE evaluation and capability audit, if needed. Once the contract terms are agreed and the contract is awarded, and before work begins at the site, we reinforce our expectations and requirements during kick-off meetings, HSSE induction, site specific training, and other joint meetings.

The presence of contractors at our sites is monitored around the clock using an electronic registration system (e.g., in the refineries) or paper sign-in system (e.g., attendance sheet, permit to work, and induction sheet). During the contract period, we monitor our contractors by way of audits, inspections, joint HSSE or safety walks, service quality meetings, forums, and workshops, using the outcomes to share information and encourage improvement of our HSSE performance as a team. To increase the awareness and knowledge of contract owners, contract holders (i.e., the beneficiaries in need of external services), procurement staff, and HSSE experts regarding our Contractor HSSE Management Process, we have continued to deliver specific training explaining how HSSE requirements and tools are embedded in the source-to-contract process. Having trained over 800 people on Contractor HSSE Management between 2019 and 2022, the training program continued with e-learning and webinars, as well as individual coaching and counseling for selected sourcing projects. Contract owners, contract holders, and procurement staff were the main target group of these training sessions.

2023 Actions

In 2023, the number of injured personnel increased among both our own employees and those of contractors. This trend is not only evident within OMV, but also across the whole industry, according to the IOGP position statement “2022 safety trends and responses” dated February 2023. The main reasons for the deterioration of the key safety indicators of our industry include:

• lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
• a clear increase in industry activity, with associated aggressive hiring and reduction in collective experience levels
• geopolitical situation, both in terms of direct stress on both individuals and their organizations, and the workload increase due to energy security imperatives.

To take countermeasures and to improve safety and bring it back to the highest level, various activities and programs have been carried out:

• In our operations, motivational management and practical training is a key topic to encourage positive behavior. For example, during the 2023 turnaround at the Schwechat refinery and polyolefin production facility, where more than 6,000 contractor employees were on duty every day, special safety behavior was praised and encouraged with a selection of small goodies. More than a thousand foremen were also given practical training in the specially built safety training centers in order to act as a multiplier for safety on site. This helped improve the relationship between the workforce and management and also encouraged safe behavior, leading to an overall positive impact at our sites.
• A big focus here is on Contractor Safety Improvement. Safety programs with the aim of consolidating and improving safety performance were implemented with a wide variety of contractors. In order to underline their importance, they are supported and managed by senior management as a sponsor.
• In line with our “Committed to Zero Harm” vision, Borealis developed and implemented stringent measures to improve our safety performance. These include the new B-Safe program, which involves employees and supervisors of main contractors participating in either a three-day training course (all leaders including top management) or a one-day training course (all other employees). The program focuses on proactive intervention to prevent safety incidents, risk identification measures, learning from past incidents, and promoting a heightened awareness of the importance of looking out for others while working.
• In order to create a better common understanding of what motivates the employees in their daily safety work and, on the other hand, what expectations management has with regard to safety work, the “Day with the crew” initiative was launched at OMV Petrom.
• In order to draw further attention to the topic of health and safety, on May 2 and 3, 2023, we held a Group-wide session to celebrate the UN World Day for Safety and Health at Work. Around 850 colleagues participated in the two action-packed days at the head office in Vienna. During the event, we informed the participants about the know-how required to optimize workspaces when working from home and how to get your bike fit for the new season. In addition, “Driving” was chosen from the OMV Life-Saving Rules as a focus topic. Additional safety days were held at the various locations, where theory and practice were combined. This was an additional great opportunity for both our own and contractor employees to discuss health and safety in a practical way.
• The incident investigation panel meets quarterly and consists of the divisional HSSE Managers, the Incident Investigation & Analysis Advisor, the VP HSSE, and the Head of Coordination & Implementation HSSE. They ensure:
  • the quality of incident investigation reports
  • the effectiveness of the defined actions
  • event frequency and trend analysis is reviewed
  • focus areas for lessons learned are defined and communicated
     
• To improve the incident investigation process and ensure that the new incident investigators get the right support, we started 2023 with an Incident Investigators Community of Practice Experience sharing session across the whole OMV Group. This will be continued regularly in 2024.
• In 2023, action close out focus audits were performed to ensure the continuous improvement process. The specific objectives were to audit the close out of actions resulting from incident investigations and to audit the sharing within the organization and to contractors of (technical/safety) alerts and lessons learned. Regrettably, however, one of our contractor colleagues at an OMV-operated venture lost their life in 2023 during the course of their work for OMV. The contractor colleague in Romania died from injuries sustained during a fire. OMV feels this loss deeply and are determined to learn from this incident, and do everything possible to prevent anything similar from happening again. We continue to work closely with our contractors to help build a strong safety culture at the front line.

Lost-Time Injury Rate

Per 1 mn hours worked

Total Recordable Injury Rate

Per 1 mn hours worked

Outlook

The HSSE strategy is implemented by means of annual plans and targets. In a combined top-down and bottom-up process, 43 local annual HSSE plans are developed and monitored centrally.

The occupational safety focus points for the 2024 HSSE plan include:

• improvements in HSSE culture,
• motivational management,
• training and competencies,
• contractor performance and subcontractor management, and
• safe behavior and compliance.

Targets 2025

• Achieve a Total Recordable Injury Rate (TRIR) of around 1.0 per 1 mn hours worked
• Achieve zero work-related fatalities

Targets 2030

• Stabilize Total Recordable Injury Rate (TRIR) at below 1.0 per 1 mn hours worked
• Achieve zero work-related fatalities

Status 2023

• TRIR: 1.37 per 1 mn hours worked
• 1 fatality

Most relevant SDGs

SDG targets:
3.9 By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water, and soil pollution and contamination
8.8 Protect labor rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment