As a major player in the oil industry, Saudi Aramco needs to take every safety precaution to protect its main commodity, oil, the facilities that produce it and the people who run the facilities.

Visiting executives were briefed on the Marine Department's efforts to protect Saudi Aramco's major offshore operations in Ras Tanura recently.
'An enormous part of Saudi Aramco's operations are offshore, where we have some of the largest offshore oilfields in the world,' said Khalid M Al-Dossary, Marine Planning and Budgets coordinator, during an Executive Management Safety Review.
'We currently have more than 470 offshore installations and more than 1,000 producing wells,' he said
'There are now 13 offshore drilling rigs in operation. That's nearly double the number of rigs a year ago.'
Marine's support services include tanker movements, well services and maintenance support, drilling-rig support, diving services and offshore firefighting support.
'Currently, we have 29 internationally certified firefighting vessels of different classes,' Al-Dossary said. 'These vessels perform other support functions with firefighting as their secondary function. Most of the vessels are equipped with fast-rescue boats to be dispatched in search-and-rescue operations.'
There are three international classes of firefighting vessels:
Fire Fighting Class-1 vessels, also known as First Response and Rescue, provide 24 hours of continuous firefighting operations, with two monitors that each have a horizontal reach of 120 metres.
The vessel has a protective water curtain to shield it and allow it to get close to the fire for rescue and firefighting operations.
A Class-2 vessel provides 96 hours of continuous support, has an additional monitor, higher pumping capacity and a longer reach of 150 metres.
Finally, a Class-3 vessel also provides 96 hours of support but has an additional monitor over the Class-2 and even higher pumping capacity for more substantial firefighting support.
The vessels are well distributed to offer the most efficient and full coverage of the main operating areas.
The response time is minutes instead of hours.
Further efforts by the company to improve firefighting capabilities include running regular disaster drills to coordinate the different departments involved in dealing with disaster situations, implementing firefighting procedures, activating the company's Disaster Control Centers, organising response plans and allocating responsibilities.
Also, a new Fire Fighting Training Center has been established in Ju'aymah.
'This is a great and promising centre,' said Salim S Al-Aydh, senior vice president of Engineering and Operations Services. 'We are very pleased to see that we have the facilities to train our people to the highest international standards.'
'With our safe practices and precautions in place, we have not had a major offshore incident,' Al-Dossary concluded. 'And we intend to keep it that way.'