“Occupational Health Hazard Risk Register” An Effective Tool to Manage Occupational Health in Oil/Petrochemical Industry

Introduction
Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is an upstream state owned oil industry with responsibilities of exploration, drilling, and production of oil and gas within the State of Kuwait. The Company is also involved in the storage of crude oil and delivery to tankers for export. Technological advances while making the oil industry competitive, have also multiplied the hazards to the operating personnel in the form of complex processes and application of various hazardous chemicals. The hazards at work place are being monitored and controlled through an established Occupational health / Industrial Hygiene practices in the company. Developing “Occupational Health Hazard Risk Register” is an important step to effectively manage Occupational Health in Oil / Petrochemical industry. 

Methods
In order to identify, evaluate (qualitative) and control all health hazards that exist in the various work locations an “Occupational Health Hazard Risk Register” was developed through series of meetings, workshops, discussions with various assets / directorates to be maintained in each location that has health hazard listed activity wise. The hazards were prioritized based on severity/frequency (category), strategy to control the effect of the hazards on human health was recommended.

Results
Total hazards identified were 599 No, out of which 189 (32 %) were high, 385 (64 %) were medium, 25 (4 %) were Low category. The types of hazards identified (Physical, Chemical, Biological etc) were 26 No. Total work areas identified were 21 No with specific area code. The control strategy was advised based on prioritization of the hazards in each work area. 

Discussion
The Occupational health hazards were plotted in the “Risk Matrix” for each facility in the “Occupational Health Hazard Risk Register”. Prioritization of Hazards was done on Low/Medium/High scale. In order to manage Occupational health of employees, strategy for implementing effective control measures recommended based on the prioritization of hazards.