Security and Crisis Management
Our Policy
As outlined in our Group HSE Policy, we are committed to protecting our personnel, operations, and assets against malicious acts through resilient security management processes. In response to the growing uncertainties of the global security environment in recent years, we make continual efforts to reinforce security management at all of our operations around the world.
We will also regularly verify our emergency and crisis management processes to ensure a prompt and effective response in the event of a major incident. We develop emergency response plans and carry out drills to strengthen our readiness to respond to various incidents, such as fires, explosions, and oil spills.
In addition to the threat of novel infectious diseases like COVID-19, we also recognize threats that have emerged in recent years, such as natural disasters caused by heavy rains, floods or other abnormal weather, or cyberattacks that might suspend operations—a recent example being the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in 2021.
We are working to improve our readiness to manage such threats.
Enhancement of Security Management
The Middle East, one of our key regions of operation, has seen rising tensions between Iran and the United States, the change in government in Afghanistan, and missile and drone attacks on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) associated with the civil war in Yemen, among other concerns. We see these changes in world affairs, including the situation in Ukraine, as risks to our projects and employees, and recognize the ongoing need to keep a close eye on these situations.
Given this state of affairs, we are continuing to step up our preparedness for geopolitical risks, by strengthening our analytical capabilities for security situations, developing emergency response plans, and conducting drills.
In FY2022, together with our overseas offices, we developed an emergency response plan to manage security incidents in Kazakhstan, based on the lessons learned from the civil unrest in Kazakhstan in January that year.
In addition, we continuously gather and analyze security information on the regions where our employees work and share that information internally. We evaluate the threat level of each region and use those assessments as a guide for the issuance of alerts and development of policies for employees stationed or traveling to the region. Information on security-related incidents such as rioting, abductions, or political unrest is posted on our intranet to raise awareness of potential threats. We also hold in-house seminars and drills to enhance employee understanding and readiness.
Security personnel at our head office periodically visit the regions where we operate to conduct security reviews. These inspections enable us to develop better security policies by providing us with a clearer understanding of each region as a whole, the local operational sites, routes of travel, accommodation used by employees, and other pertinent information.
Emergency and Crisis Response Structure
Our corporate divisions, our domestic and overseas organizations, and our operational sites have all prepared structures for responding to emergencies. Through drills and other opportunities, we regularly verify and update our emergency response documents, maintain and expand the required facilities and equipment, and work to elevate the level of coordination between organizations in the event of an emergency.
Launched in FY2020 in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the C-CMT continued its operations in FY2022 to monitor new variants and the state of regulations in individual countries and to discuss with relevant departments and implement actions necessary for ensuring the continuity of our critical businesses.
Based on the lessons we learned through our March 2022 crisis response drill, which simulated a cyberattack against the Ichthys LNG Project’s operational site, we collaborated with information systems departments to prepare a crisis response structure for dealing with cyberattacks. In this way, we have envisioned various crisis scenarios and are continuously working to implement measures to effectively deal with them.
Emergency Response Drills
Each year, our organizations in Japan and overseas conduct planned emergency response drills—both independently and together with our head office—to continuously improve emergency response capabilities.
We hold drills at newly established businesses and projects to ensure effective, well-coordinated responses to large-scale incidents.
In FY2022, we conducted a joint crisis response drill with our head office and personnel at a drilling project off the coast of the San’in region. This drill provided valuable lessons in emergency responsiveness.
Going forward, we will continue to use the lessons learned from such drills to guide improvements to existing manuals and strengthen our emergency responsiveness through various measures, including the deployment of new materials, equipment, and reserves.
Response to Blowouts and Oil Spill Incident
We need to be prepared not only for large-scale blowouts and oil spills at oil and gas development sites, but also for small-scale spills from tanks and pipelines at production facilities, which may affect the local community’s safety, health, and business interests.
Taking lessons from incidents experienced by other companies, we are enhancing incident management structures for our wells, pipelines, plants, and other assets in all aspects of incident prevention, containment, and response. We have developed rules and procedures for consistent management aimed at preventing incidents. To prepare against the malfunctioning of a subsea blowout preventer in offshore drilling, we maintain a contract with Wild Well Control, Inc., a supplier of capping equipment. We also have a contract with Oil Spill Response Limited—the world’s largest provider of oil spill response services—to establish a structure for responding to a large-scale oil spill, and to constantly acquire knowledge of oil spill response technologies.
In FY2022, there were no oil spills at our operator projects.