1.26.2000 ET

(CSRwire) PDO has been awarded the ISO 14001 certificate of compliance for its environmental management systems, and becomes the first oil company in the Middle East, and one of the largest Exploration & Production companies in the world, to gain the award.


Compliance with the ISO 14001 standard - which is set by the International Standards Organisation - certifies that PDO's environmental management systems meet the highest standards.

In a ceremony on 26 January, His Excellency Dr Mohammed bin Hamed al Rumhy, Minister of Oil & Gas, presented the ISO 14001 certificate to PDO's Managing Director, Steve Ollerearnshaw, watched by other Minister's and honoured guests.

Accepting the certificate, Mr Ollerearnshaw said: "This day is an important milestone in PDO' s effort to continuously improve our business activities.

"Our decision to benchmark PDO's environmental management system against an internationally recognized standard for environmental management is the natural progression of a company which has held environmental management as an important element of its business for decades.

"In PDO, it is our vision to be rated among the best E & P companies among comparable sizes in the world. This vision of course permeates to all aspects of our business, which includes environment.

"PDO has always been working closely with the Government of the Sultanate of Oman in the area of environmental management. The guidance, co-operation and assistance of the various ministries have been key in achieving environmental milestones time after time."

The awarding of ISO 14001 is the culmination of 18 months of work in all parts of PDO's operations. The process involved upgrading the environmental management systems and corporate documentation, identifying significant environmental risks, meeting legal requirements and raising environmental awareness within the whole company.

The certification of compliance with ISO 14001 to PDO was made by external auditors ABS Services Inc., a Houston-based certification body, who spent the early part of November 1999 probing the company's environmental management systems.

PDO piloted the implementation of ISO 14001 in one part of the company - Marmul, in the south of Oman - before extending the implementation programme across the whole company. ABS ServicesMarmul was certified as ISO 14001 compliant in June last year.

Joppe Cramwinckel, PDO's Head of Environmental Affairs, said that one of PDO's business objectives is to demonstrate sound HSE and integrity management.

"In order to demonstrate that our approach to the environment is sound, we wanted to open up our environmental management systems to independent, external auditing. Those systems have passed the strictest test there is. This confirms that PDO places the highest priority on looking after the environment," he said.