OREANDA-NEWS. In March, the management board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) appointed Gazprom Neft Chief Executive Officer Alexander Dyukov Co-chair of the RSPP Health, Safety and Environment Committee. The Committee is a permanent working body of the RSPP with a mission to help business community streamline its approach towards issues of regulation and practical compliance with the requirements of industrial and occupational safety. The Committee is focused on promoting a dialogue between the business community, government agencies, public and professional organizations, and other participants of economic relations on issues of business development and improving the efficiency of governmental control over compliance with HSE laws.

Alexander Dyukov said, “We are currently going through an important stage in modernizing the occupational safety laws. Since government agencies and business community have completed a long phase of preparatory work, the philosophy behind the regulating the construction of industrial facilities is beginning to change. A new risk-oriented approach will make it possible to design industrial facilities around objective safety requirements based on real life situations and technologies. Up until now, dozens of major projects have not had a chance of getting off the ground simply because the old Soviet standards and rules made construction unfeasible. Our analysis shows that building an average oil refinery unit using the risk-oriented approach makes it possible to cut costs by nearly one third. The further application of new regulatory principles will allow us not simply to use the most advanced construction technologies, but will also raise the occupational safety level, substantially cut costs, and will become a good incentive for related industries to come up with innovative and efficient solutions.”