ABSTRACT

Oil and gas resources are unarguably the life blood of the modern economy and have now become one of the most essential energy resource in the world. The Cameroonian economy depends on the oil and gas sector for revenue and fuel. However, oil and gas activities have the potentials of causing harm to lives, properties and the environment if not controlled and regulated appropriately. Measures and strategies designed to prevent, control, reduce, or eliminate hazards in the oil and gas industry have most often been futile due to the disregard to hygiene and safety rules. Against this backdrop, this study critically examines compliance with hygiene and safety regulations in the oil and gas sector in Cameroon and the extent to which these hygiene and safety measures are implemented in SONARA. The researcher made use of qualitative research methodology encompassing an in-depth of content analysis of both primary and secondary sources of information, accompanied by interviews and personal observations. Findings revealed the existence of commendable legal and institutional mechanisms aimed at ensuring compliance with hygiene and safety regulations at SONARA. It was further revealed that the management of SONARA has also committed herself genuinely to the implementation of hygiene safety measures. This notwithstanding, the recent fire incident at SONARA on Friday, 31^st May 2019 and other major hygiene and safety challenges depicts that safety measures adopted by the management of SONARA are inadequate. It is therefore recommended that the management of SONARA ensures regular machine maintenance, purchase and install high standard machines, import efficient and effective generators, carry out routine training on hygiene and safety, and implement the laws regulating hygiene and safety.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter being the first provides an introductory overview of the study. It comprises of the background to the study, the statement of the problem, the research questions, and objectives, the research methodology, literature review, theoretical framework, justification for and significance of the study, the scope of the study, the definition of key terms as used in the study and the synopsis of other chapters.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Oil and gas have gained prominence in today’s contemporary society as a whole and Cameroon in particular, because of the economic impact it brings into a country due to the fact that it is the major energy resource accounting for approximately 60% of the world’s commercial energy. A famous industrialist by the name of Smil^[1] describes oi and gas as the “lifeblood of the modern world” stating that “without oil, there would be no globalization, no plastic, little transport, and a worldwide landscape that few would recognize”. This explains why oil and gas have become the world’s most important source of energy since the mid-1950s.

Cameroon, fortunately, is endowed with oil and gas and it owns an Oil refinery known in French as ‘Societe Nationale de Raffinage’ and in English ; the National Oil Refinery (SONARA) which was created on the 24^th of March 1973 by a presidential decree^[2] and officially incorporated on the 7^th of December, 1976. SONARA was equipped with the status of an enterprise by the government on the 11^th of January 1978 and inaugurated on the 16^th of May 1981 by then-president, Amadou Ahidjo. It operates as the only crude oil refinery in the country making it the only major producer and exporter of oil and gas products like butane, gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, fuel oil, and distillate. The company supplies its products both nationally and internationally^[3]. SONARA is found in Limbe, in the Fako Division of the South West Region of Cameroon.

However, despite the enormous economic impacts that the oil and gas company brings to a country, it is also known that those working in the oil and gas sector are often exposed to various risk hazards that cause damage to their health.[4] That necessitates the need to comply with the laws on safety and hygiene^[5]. Hygiene and safety regulations are very crucial, particularly important from the upstream (exploration and production phase), midstream (transportation, storage, and marketing phase) to downstream (refining, sales, and distribution phase) where there are possibilities for major accidents. As a result, effective and relentless efforts have been made towards ensuring that hygiene and safety rules which are seen as the cornerstone and core of every company operating in the oil and gas sector, are implemented.^[6]

The oil and gas sector is characterized by a combination of very heavy equipment, flammable chemicals, and processes that are constantly under high pressure which could lead to hazardous and even deadly accidents.[7] This has made the oil and gas industry one of the most hazardous in the world and why managers and supervisors of such companies need to identify and communicate recommended hygiene and safety rules at the workplace in order to prevent minor and major accidents.

Besides, both employers and employees in the global oil and gas industry are exposed to extreme mental and physical danger at the workplace thus necessitating the putting in place of stringent measures in the oil and gas sector by both the government and employers. In the absence of such measures, the rate of derogation to hygiene and safety standards will be in an ever-increasing spectrum.^[8]

Hygiene and safety, therefore, stands out as the principal value for the oil and natural gas industry, embedded in all processes and decisions for operations.[9] This has driven continuous advancements in technology, improved industrial standards, smarter regulations, and innovative approaches to addressing onshore and offshore hygiene and safety rules.

The management of hygiene and safety at work is not an issue of today as it started around the 19^th and 21^st centuries where employers ran their businesses as they deem fit to make profits without their concern on their employee’s health and safety. In the USA, injured employees in the factories had to litigate in order to obtain compensation for their injuries the cost of which effectively prevented employees from going to court. Besides, employees were rarely successful under the Common Law if it was proven that such an employee knew how risky the job was before accepting it at the end of which that employee was blamed for negligence. There was need for the employees to make their voices heard from the factories, nationally and internationally. This brought in the International Labour Organization (ILO) that advised that occupational hygiene and safety services be established in or near the place of employment for the employee’s welfare. The human, social and economic cost of occupational accidents, injuries and diseases as well as, major industrial diseases were a big call for concern. In 1950, the International Labor Organization(ILO) and the World Health Organization(WHO) defined occupational health “as the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of the physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations by preventing ill-health, controlling risk and adapting work to people and people to their jobs”[10].

 The roots of hygiene and safety rules could be further traced way back to the 19^th century in the United Kingdom and gained prominence at the global scene in 1945, where global efforts were put in place to improve workplace conditions. This notwithstanding, it was only in 1975 that the World Health Organization (WHO) intensified their efforts towards rules on hygiene and safety. Notably, its Resolution WHA 32.14 on comprehensive worker’s health program further developed occupational health, and Resolution WHA 33.31[11] encouraged countries to integrate occupational health into primary health care services and to cover underserved populations.[12]

In 1995, ILO/WHO formed a Joint Committee on Occupational Health and Safety that met and developed a consensus statement on occupational health and safety at the workplace that stated as follows: (i) the maintenance and promotion of workers’ health and working capacity; (ii) the improvement of the working environment and work to become conducive for safety and health; and (iii) the development of work organization and working cultures reflected in practice in the managerial systems, personnel policy, principles for participation, training policies and quality management of the undertaking.[13]

In 1996, the global strategy on occupational health for all was adopted aimed at improving occupational health and safety through the application of health measures in some countries and encouraged others to take positive steps in making such trends possible.^[14]

Since 2000, the ILO and WHO pursued cooperation in occupational safety in various institutions in the African Region. In the year 2002, a strategy for the African continent was adopted^[15] to enable countries to develop their policies on health and environment including hygiene and safety. In 2003, the Regional Directors of WHO and ILO signed a “Statement of Intent” for the collaboration of hygiene and safety of workers in Africa. The two organizations agreed to cooperate with governments, employees, and employers to identify and address the health and safety needs of employees^[16].

Cameroon on its part has taken several steps to ensure the realization of occupational hygiene and safety standards of its citizens through the establishment of various pieces of legislation which are:

The Law No. 59-100 of the 31/September/1959^[17], Decree No 61-159 of the 13^th of September 1961,^[18] Law No 68 –LF of the 18^th of November 1968^[19], Law No 77-11 of the 13^th of July 1977^[20] Decree No 78-546 of the 28 of December 1978^[21], Decree No 78-547 of the 28 of December 1978^[22] Decree No 84-1541 of the 1/December/1984,^[23]Order No 039/MTPS/IMT of 26/11/1984^[24]

In the oil and gas industry, Law No. 99/013 of 22 December 1999 governing the Petroleum Code and Law No. 2002/013 of 30^th December 2002 instituting the Gas Code have been enacted with specific provisions relating to hygiene and safety of workers in the oil and gas industry. The bodies in charge of ensuring adherence to hygiene and safety standards in the oil and gas industry are the Ministry of Mines, Industry, and Technology Development and National Hydrocarbon Company (Société Nationale d’Hydrocarbures or SNH).

Despite the above measures taken by various governments in other parts of the world and in Cameroon in particular, the rate of occupational hygiene and safety have continued to increase like the accidents explained below.

In fact, on the 25^th day of August 2012, an explosion caused by the ignition of a leaking gas at the Amuay oil refinery which is part of Paraguayan Refinery Complex killed 48 people; primarily National Guard troops stationed at the plant, and injured 151 others.[25]

There is also the case of Deep-water Horizon drilling rig explosion that occurred on the 2^nd of April, 2010, and subsequent fire on the deep-water horizon semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) that killed 11 workers and injured 16 others[26]. This explosion caused the Deep-water Horizon to burn and sink resulting in a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, considered the largest marine oil spill accident in the world, and the largest environmental disaster in U.S history.

Also, according to the report developed by the NORA Oil and Gas Extraction Council in the US, from 2003-2008, 648 oil and gas extraction workers were fatally injured at work resulting in an occupational fatality rate of 29.1 deaths per 100,000 workers-eight times higher than the rate of all U.S. workers. Nearly half of all fatal events in the oil and gas extraction industry resulted from highway crashes (29%) of workers struck by objects and equipment.[27]

There is also the Exxon Valdez Oil spill that occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on the 24^th March, 1989 where an oil tanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company, bound for long beach California, struck Prince William Sound’s Bligh Reef, at 12:04 Am and spilled 10.8 million US gallons of crude oil over the next few days.[28] So far, it was considered the worst oil spill worldwide in terms of damage to the environment and the second largest in the USA after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in terms of volume released. The above damages at the expense of worker’s lives and the destruction of the environment only emphasis why more attention must be placed on the perception of hygiene and safety by personnel in the petroleum companies. These mishaps and accidents have a wide range of impacts; apart from the irrevocable damage to the corporate and social image of oil companies involved, it could also lead to a reduction in their financial standing.[29]

In Cameroon, there is the recent case of SONARA where on Friday, 31^st May 2019, a fuel storage tank at the oil refinery caught fire with some of its infrastructures reduced to ashes by the blaze. This resulted to fear among the indigenes leaving around SONARA and some of whom ended up packing out for fear of the unknown[30].

 Evidence gotten from one of the workers at SONARA showed that since SONARA was established in 1978, it has been using the same machine to refine its crude oil and the fact that SONARA had not complied with its insurance policy. That indicates that the explosion could have been caused as a result of negligence on the part of the employer who failed to ensure a follow-up of outdated materials that have been used for a very long time without replacement.

The above incident clearly emphasizes the need for an effective occupational hygiene and safety management system that integrates safety and health concerns into a daily routine in the oil and gas industry. The aim of compliance with hygiene and safety measures in the oil and gas sector is not only to identify and assess safety and health hazards existing at the workplace but improvements in defining appropriate control and retrieval steps that will enhance hygiene and safety rules. Creating a safe place at work starts with a regulatory system and for any legislation and regulation enforcement system preventing workplace accident and disease to be effective, it is contingent on a series of arrangements.

The factors that may cause workplace accidents or injuries must be reflected in the regulations and communicated properly to those in the workplace. If there is no national system to align itself with the recommendations and standards set by the ILO it is obvious that occupational accidents due to neglects of safety and hygienic measures will always be on the rise.

It is on this basis that this study seeks to evaluate and analyse the various rules and regulations governing hygiene and safety standards in oil and gas companies in Cameroon and the extent of their effective implementation in Cameroon’s only National Oil Refinery (SONARA).

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This research is predicated on several hygiene and safety problems that have been identified in the oil and gas sector of Cameroon, with specific attention on SONARA. It was observed that, one of the major problems of low level of compliance with hygiene and safety regulations in the oil and gas sector was based on the fact that although a host of hygiene and safety laws have been enacted by Cameroon to deal with the issue of hygiene and safety at work and some institutions have been put in place for that purpose to ensure their effective implementation, yet, there seems to be a gap between theory and practice on hygiene and safety in the oil and gas sector of Cameroon.

 The recent fire incident at SONARA confirms the low level of compliance with hygiene and safety rules that could be traced to the lack of maintenance of the equipment used in carrying out oil and gas operations. Ii is no doubt that the machines used in the oil and gas sector are usually heavy equipment, inflammable chemicals and processes that are constantly under high pressure which demands that after their long usage, there is a need for these machines to be changed without which they will create safety concerns by putting the lives of the workers at risk like the case of SONARA. In fact, following the fire outbreak of May, 2019, information obtained from one of the workers of SONARA stated that since its creation in March 1973, the oil tank that caught flames had never been replaced thus, it is possible that the oil tank could have caught flames due to deterioration of over use over a long period of time. This makes the study on hygiene and safety a compelling one.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Based on the aforementioned problem, the study seeks to address the following question:

1.3.1 Main Research Question:

To what extent does SONARA comply with hygiene and safety standards applicable to the oil and gas sector in Cameroon?

1.3., its Specific Research Questions:

• What is the concept of hygiene and safety and how is it applicable in the oil and gas industry?
• What are the legal and institutional mechanisms that have been put in place to ensure compliance with hygiene and safety at work in the oil and gas sector in Cameroon, and which SONARA is expected to implement?
• How are hygiene and safety measures implemeted in SONARA?
• To what extent does SONARA comply with the hygiene and safety regulations and standards at work?
• What can be done to improve on the hygiene and safety standards in Cameroon as a whole and in SONARA in specific?

1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1.4.1 General Objectives

The general purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which hygiene and safety standards applicable to the oil and gas sector in Cameroon are implemented in SONARA.

1.4.2 Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of the research are:

• To analyze the concept of hygiene and safety in the oil and gas sector in Cameroon.
• To explain the regulatory and institutional frameworks on hygiene and safety standards in the oil and gas sector of Cameroon.
• To examine the implementation of hygiene and safety standards in SONARA by interviewing some officials working in SONARA on matters of hygiene and safety in the company.
• To make personal observations on facilities used at SONARA in effecting hygiene and safety standards and to see how staffs carry out their tasks on implementing the rules on hygiene and safety
• To propose recommendations that can help improve hygiene and safety standards in SONARA.