Health, Safety, and Security

In 2022, the combined Lost-Time Injury Rate (LTIR) for OMV employees and contractors was 0.78 (2021: 0.57), and our combined Total Recordable Injury Rate (TRIR) was 1.23 (2021: 0.96). We are deeply concerned about the work-related fatality of a contractor who fell off a roof while carrying out repairs in France. Managing the COVID-19 pandemic remained a high priority in 2022 alongside routine HSSE management. Our main focus was to learn from incidents across the Company: videos, alerts, and communication campaigns were again used to reach out to all employees.

The business segment Chemicals & Materials reached a TRIR of 2.85 (2021: 2.25). There was a strong focus on implementing occupational safety improvement initiatives, holding dedicated HSSE training sessions, as well as the further strengthening of the safety culture and risk awareness. Special attention was paid to contractor HSSE management and learning from past incidents, to prevent recurrences and embed appropriate improvement measures.

The HSSE performance of Refining & Marketing in 2022 resulted in a TRIR of 0.82 (2021: 0.54). Great effort was put into broad safety and security awareness and prevention campaigns in order to establish a strong and positive safety culture. This was especially the case during the planned maintenance turnarounds that took place in the Schwechat and Burghausen refineries. During the past year, special emphasis was placed on findings from incidents, leadership engagement, contractor management, and training on various emergency and crisis management scenarios. The consistent implementation of the process safety road maps and improvement initiatives was another area of focus.

Exploration & Production had a TRIR of 1.09 (2021: 0.92). The numbers show that a constant effort is required to minimize the occurrence of incidents. In addition, we encountered 18 High Potential Incidents (HiPos) that could have resulted in serious or fatal injuries under slightly different circumstances. All these incidents were subjected to thorough incident investigations and measures were taken to prevent recurrence. Contractor management continues to be a focus area in our HSSE efforts. Our activities concerning process safety management, and various other initiatives aimed at ensuring the safety and integrity of our facilities, continued in 2022.

The well-being and health of employees are fundamental to the success of any company, as they serve as a foundation for ensuring employee productivity. The year 2022 was still strongly influenced by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Our medical teams and service providers were challenged with supporting the emergency management teams in updating and implementing pandemic preparedness plans, guidelines and health information, and providing support to employees suffering from COVID-19 at home and in hospital. In addition, OMV continued its long tradition of offering health and prevention programs, such as cardiovascular disease prevention programs, thyroid screenings and other voluntary health checks, vaccinations (especially against flu and in some countries COVID-19), and virtual health hours, such as ideas for a healthy work-life balance or first aid measures that go far beyond legal requirements.

In 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic again posed major challenges for safety management. At the operational level, we took preventive and business continuity-related measures, such as strictly segregated teams in key areas, hygiene measures, and ongoing awareness-raising. Despite restricted travel and thanks to digital communication and collaboration tools, we were able to carry out the following important safety-related activities:

• We have updated our Life-Saving Rules and harmonized them across the OMV Group. This simple set of rules helps prevent fatal and severe accidents, and applies to all employees and contractors. Training and communication materials have been produced in 18 languages for an intensive refresher campaign in 2023.
• All incidents at level 3 and higher and HiPos were investigated, and lessons learned were communicated throughout the organization. Improvement initiatives were developed and closely monitored using our HSSE reporting tool.
• As part of our safety culture program, we held several workshops on “making HSSE personal” at different levels of the Company. The semi-annual meetings with the program owner were conducted online.
• Contractor HSSE management is key to the OMV Group’s safety performance. We introduced a new e-learning program, held webinars, and delivered over 900 trainings to more than 660 beneficiaries and procurement staff on the internal regulations framework. We also held strategic supplier meetings with prime contractors to share information, experiences, and expectations.
• Global HSSE training for employees and managers was completely revised and updated. An e-learning course consisting of 13 modules was developed for basic HSSE training.
• We developed a harmonized set of KPIs and a process safety dashboard. Furthermore, a Group Process Safety Committee has been established, including Members of the Executive Board, which meets periodically to discuss process safety performance, achievements, and challenges.
• We supported and followed up on the implementation of process safety road maps across OMV’s ventures, assets, and refineries. In our Integrated Risk Register, we continued to analyze and prioritize process safety risks to ensure that investments effectively lead to a significant reduction in risks.
• The OMV Group Process Safety Network, a large online collaboration platform, met quarterly to exchange information and experiences in virtual meetings (> 200 participants). Senior management also participated.
• We completed the review of 15 group-wide HSSE regulations and achieved systematic alignment between the OMV Group and Borealis.
• An important milestone has been achieved with the successful go-live of the OMV Group HSSE reporting tool. This is a key step in our ongoing harmonization and enables us to report in one single system across the OMV Group and Borealis by replacing all existing tools.

An unstable geopolitical environment combined with complex new and enduring regional conflicts remained a constant security focus throughout 2022. The Corporate Security department continued to monitor these geopolitical situations, accelerating OMV’s understanding of strategic events to identify any emerging threats that might interfere with business planning. This included cases of armed conflict, civil unrest, and criminality at local, national, regional, and international levels.

We updated our proven security management system in 2022, enabling us to anticipate or respond to a broad spectrum of geopolitical, regional, or isolated security incidents. The security risk assessment platform continued to provide real-time oversight of asset risk exposure levels as influenced by geopolitical or security events. Despite various geopolitical and pandemic-related challenges, the Corporate Security department continued to deliver global operational support, governance, and oversight, and will maintain a comparable and effective security strategy to allow OMV to operate despite converging asymmetric threats.

In 2021, OMV’s Executive Board took the decision that OMV would join the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR), if feasible. This set of tools provides guidance on risk assessment, public safety and security, human rights abuses, and the interaction between companies and private and public security. OMV is committed to upholding human rights in all of its activities. During 2022, OMV Corporate Security conducted a VPSHR gap analysis using a third-party consultancy company to ensure independence. As a result of this analysis, we are now in the process of adopting their recommendations with a view to joining the VPSHR in 2023.