Korea Gas Corporation's 'Safety Management' Creating a 'Safe Village'

Practice 'Safety Inspection Day' on the 4th of Every Month
Establish Consultative Bodies with Local Governments and Citizens
Promote Communication and Spread Safety Culture
Selected as 'Best' in Public Institution Evaluation

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] As safety has become a social issue following recent fires and gas leak accidents at domestic and international workplaces, public institutions are also prioritizing "safety-first management."

According to Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) on the 19th, the corporation designates the 4th of every month as "Safety Inspection Day" and carries out various safety practice activities. In cooperation with local governments and public institutions, it conducts nationwide safety prevention campaigns to raise public safety awareness, sets different safety themes each month, and conducts focused on-site safety inspections on disaster-vulnerable elements at natural gas production, supply facilities, and construction sites.

Safety activities created together with the public are also notable. KOGAS carries out safety improvement activities through public-private cooperation to prevent fires and safety accidents at local safety-vulnerable facilities and promotes the "Safe Village (Ansim [安心]) Creation" project to realize social values in safety and environmental fields of public institutions for better living environments. Additionally, it has established the "Safe Village Council," including local governments and citizens as participants, to activate communication among social members and strives to disseminate the know-how and safety culture accumulated by KOGAS in the safety field.

KOGAS has proactively introduced safety management systems from overseas companies to eradicate accidents. Benchmarking the safety management system of ExxonMobil, a U.S. energy company with advanced safety management techniques, it established the integrated "EHSQ Management System (Environment, Health & Safety, Quality Management System)" in 2003 and has been continuously promoting it.

The purpose of the EHSQ Management System is to fundamentally prevent accidents and realize accident-free workplaces by identifying and improving risk factors present throughout safety, health, environment, and quality activities. It consists of 14 components including management policies, risk management, and details, and is composed of EHSQ management regulations and enforcement rules, 15 procedural documents, and 66 guidelines.

The corporation has used the EHSQ Management System to establish a field-oriented safety culture, enhance employees' safety awareness, and introduce safety management techniques at the level of global energy companies, serving as a stepping stone to becoming a world-class safety management company.

KOGAS's safety management has received high external evaluations. Last year, KOGAS was selected as the best institution among 55 organizations in the "Public Institution Disaster Management Evaluation" announced by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. In the evaluation, which comprehensively checked personnel, budget, organizational capabilities in disaster management, efforts to spread safety culture throughout the year, safety measures for vulnerable groups, earthquake disaster prevention measures, and other disaster management achievements, KOGAS received the highest rating, recognizing the corporation's disaster safety management capabilities.

The corporation is also recognized as an excellent global safety system company in the International Safety Rating System-Culture (ISRS-C) evaluation. In cooperation with DNV-GL, an international safety consulting firm, it conducted the international safety culture level evaluation and received a score of 7.63 in last year's evaluation. This indicates a high level of safety awareness exceeding the overseas average of 7.6. KOGAS plans to reach the highest domestic level of 8.0 by 2023.

Chae Hee-bong, President of KOGAS, stated, "We plan to strengthen on-site safety inspections across all business sites by setting safety management as the top priority in management." He added, "While establishing a company-wide response system for safety issues, we will do our best to realize social value by establishing a safety culture created together with the public."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.