25/May/2010: Petroleum Engineering's Professor John Williams selected as the 2010 recipient of the prestigious Regional Technical Award Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Social Responsibility by the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
It has just been announced that Petroleum Engineering's Professor John Williams has been selected as the 2010 recipient of the prestigious Regional Technical Award Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Social Responsibility by the Society of Petroleum Engineers. This award acknowledges the enormous contribution he has made over the last 9 years to HSE in the Middle East in industry and academia, through developing best practices, applying the highest standards, educating students, and writing papers, while never having "HSE" in his job title.
While with Saudi Aramco, he introduced a new method for safely absorbing H2S from waste gas during sample depressurization, and planned and supervised on-site measurements in Qatif field where H2S levels up to 170,000 ppm were anticipated. He was voted Aramco R&D Center Safe Employee (Q1 2003).
At the Petroleum Institute, he joined the PI HSE Committee in 2003 and has been continuously involved in HSE, serving as committee chair for two years. He designed and set-up highly-rated engineering laboratories with special safety systems to help manage use of pressurised, combustible, toxic oil and gas samples. He was presented with PI HSE Annual Award in 2003-4. He subsequently created a novel HSE course for undergraduate PE students, and achieved two HSE publications at major SPE conferences.
We often hear about HSE only when "bad HSE" is involved, such as with the recent blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico where 11 lives and billions of US dollars will be lost. This HSE award should remind everybody of the lives and money that can effectively be saved by education and application of good HSE practices!
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