Safety gains ground in the UAE

Talal Al Hashmi, CEO of Jaheziya, talks to The Energy Year about how safety measures develop in the energy industry and the company’s offering to the oil and gas sector. Jaheziya provides locally and internationally approved training programmes and firefighting and emergency response services.

How do safety measures develop over time in the energy industry?
The global industry is continuously developing safety measures, with the main triggers being accidents and incidents. Some accidents in the oil and gas industry can have global impacts and since risks across many operations are high, we do see strong efforts from the industry’s side to improve operational security and response capabilities.
Over recent years we have witnessed the industry engage with clients and other actors to enhance the learning cycle and raise awareness about potential dangers. This is why services providers such as ourselves have become increasingly central and are now an integral part of operational safety and response functions.
The government has also had considerable impacts on security and safety practices across all industries. Especially in the UAE, the government continues to improve its policies and regulations to best ensure the safety of all stakeholders.

What services do you provide to the oil and gas sector and how are you positioned within it?
Jaheziya specialises in firefighting and emergency services. Fire is the number one concern within the oil and gas industry. We constantly hear that from our clients and we see ADNOC continually trying to improve this particular response mechanism.
We are well positioned in the industry, both for operational services and for training programmes. We comply with NFPA [National Fire Protection Association] standards and also provide aviation firefighting solutions. The quality of our personnel, our relationship with local and international companies, and the facilities we own all contribute to the strength of the company in the UAE as well as regionally. We have recently signed two MoUs with countries in and outside the region in order to provide services there and have established relationships with some European institutions as well.

What current contracts do you have and where do you see opportunities coming along?
We are of course working together with ADNOC and offer different services for them. We are also working with one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world and deal with them in their operations from upstream to downstream, providing them with training services. We are looking to further this relationship and start offering operational solutions for them.
We have just signed an MoU with Abu Dhabi Ports as well as the Abu Dhabi Maritime Academy and are currently finalising the related execution plan.
We are excited about 2023 because last year we were working on the merging of the company with two other services providers, a consultancy and a training company. We are now ready to deliver and accomplish the strategy of Jaheziya throughout the year, especially in light of the growing demand from the energy industry. We are looking to stabilise our services for the oil and gas industry at around 70-80% of our entire operations.

How are you developing your capabilities and services to best meet industry needs?
As we see the emerging demand for more training services, we have decided to expand the capacity of our training facilities and are looking to introduce new technologies such as augmented reality to keep on improving our capabilities and provide the best possible training offerings. We have signed an MoU for this technology which will allow us to map out our facilities digitally and provide continuous and delocalised training for safety personnel.
We have just established a partnership with a company that specialises in acoustic prevention systems with whom we intend to grow in the future and broaden the scope of our capabilities.

Read our latest insights on:

• Abu Dhabi
• UAE