Stories

Since its inception, KBR’s Zero Harm health, safety, security and environment platform has been a game changer not only for the company, but also for our customers and partners. It’s led to improved safety performance year on year, and it’s also at the root of a cultural shift at KBR that prioritizes safeguarding our people, communities and planet, and delivering projects and solutions with safety and sustainability at the forefront.

The latest beneficiary of KBR’s dedication to Zero Harm was BP, which netted the 2022 Safe Project Management Award from the APM (Association for Project Management) for demonstrating a commitment to safety during the development of the new quarters and utilities (QU) platform at the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) offshore gas field hub in the Atlantic Ocean.

“We used our project as the demonstrator for new ways of working to elevate safety standards on site,” said Alex Ryder, delivery manager from BP. “Collaborating around a principle of care for one another, the project team nurtured a safety culture that evolved from initially pathological to truly generative, one that delivered the project without any lost-time incident, an exceptional achievement for this scale of project in a Chinese shipyard.”

The QU platform will serve as the nerve center for BP’s GTA hub, located 10 kilometers offshore on the maritime border of Mauritania and Senegal. The platform — measuring 95 meters long and 70 meters wide and weighing more than 10,000 tons — will serve as the central control center for the hub’s facilities and utilities, as well as being home to 216 personnel.

KBR has been involved on the GTA project since 2017, supporting BP through pre-FEED (front-end engineering design), FEED and execute phases. In 2019, KBR was awarded an EPCM (engineering, procurement and construction management) contract for facilities integration and QU management. While the QU was designed and built by Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore (YCRO) in China, KBR engineering and project management experts worked alongside the YCRO team to help ensure safe project delivery throughout the design and build. KBR awarded De Maas SMC a competitively bid Site Surveillance contract, and for the duration of the build, De Maas SMC team were fully integrated into KBR’s site team.

“It gives me and the team a great sense of pride knowing that we have been able to support BP and influence the success of the project though our shared Zero Harm culture,” said Ahmed Al-Dadah, senior vice president of KBR Integrated Solutions.

Special recognition goes to the KBR team including Aron Stewart (project manager), John Kertesz (safety manager), Mark Cooper (QU delivery manager), Xiao Li (QU deputy delivery manager), Liza Amirian (site engineering lead), Joe Chen (De Maas SMC team lead), and the entire KBR/De Maas T SMC site team.