Crescent Petroleum has grown and thrived through its people, who have always gone above and beyond the call of duty. We regard our employees as our greatest asset, from those leading teams to those ensuring the oil and gas facilities continues to work reliably, and those engaging with the community. Their loyalty to the company was on show throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, when employees worked extended shifts for long periods and worked collaboratively to ensure uninterrupted operations. We invest in them to help them lead and grow as employees and as people.

Our commitment to the UN SDGs:

	Our internal engagement policies work to support employees’ emotional and physical well-being.
	We promote lifelong learning among our employees and provide them with quality training opportunities for professional growth.
	We prioritise women’s empowerment throughout the employee tenure.
	We are committed to creating job opportunities for local talent in both the UAE and the KRI.

2019 and 2020 Highlights

Instilling our mission and values

We strive to ensure that our mission and values resonate with all employees to enable them to build meaningful careers in line with their aspirations. Employee loyalty is a testament to the impact of our human resources strategy.

Despite the economic challenges and market turmoil witnessed during 2020, Crescent Petroleum worked hard to minimise job losses and major impact on staff and their families. We have introduced a new laptop or tablet allowance to enable parents to support their children’s online education.

A furlough programme during the summer period ensured that employees maintained full benefits, including life, personal accident, and health insurance, despite reduced hours of employment. Most employees were reinstated to full-time employment following the defined period.

Nurturing employee well-being

Our Human Resources Department strives to ensure our employees’ emotional and physical well-being by encouraging work-life balance, teambuilding activities, awareness events, and healthy lifestyles.

In the UAE special leave policies are available for those studying, welcoming new-borns, or attending to sick family. Our regular team-building activities aim to strengthen team camaraderie in celebrations of UAE National Day and religious occasions such as Ramadan, Diwali, and Christmas.

In the KRI, we offer paid time off to newlyweds, new mothers and caregivers, as well as those moving house. We celebrate major religious occasions together and hold outdoor activities for our office employees.

The Crescent Sports Committee coordinates sports and wellness activities of our employees in the UAE, including participation in the AUS Ramadan Corporate Sports Games and the annual Crescent Bowling Tournament. Our basketball and cricket teams hold year-round practice matches and compete in intramural matches.

We encourage our employees in both the UAE and the KRI to pursue their own personal interest as well. In the UAE colleagues have organised football and golf events to enhance both fitness and professional relationships in a relaxed environment. In the KRI in February 2019, three colleagues raised the company’s flag after climbing atop the second-highest peak in the region, the Halgurd Mountain. Such efforts work to strengthen teams and inspire staff to be ambitious and creative, and to embrace that spirit in their work with us.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we suspended employee events and gatherings from March 2020 onwards, for health and safety reasons, and instead launched an employee wellness newsletter, Crescent Together, to inspire employees to follow best health and wellness practices while cultivating their physical stamina and mental resilience. We intend to resume holding in-person well-being events when the pandemic ends.

Investing in our people

During 2019 and 2020 our employee training efforts reinforced the drive for continuous learning and growth by enabling all employees to build new skills and capabilities. Training was made available to all staff regardless of their position. Throughout the two years our employees undertook more than 50,000 hours of training, both in-person and online. The average training hours in 2019 rose to 51 hours, up by 25 per cent per cent from 2018.

In 2020 the number of training hours dropped to 15 hours per employee due to a short-term change in priorities dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, we made various online courses available to employees, particularly those in the KRI who took part in training sessions during their quarantine periods. We intend to resume regular learning and development activities once business and public health conditions improve.

In the KRI we provide a variety of technical training to all employees, including Plant Operations, Camp Management, Supply Chain, HSSE, IT, and Organisational Development. We offer English language courses to our local national staff and seek to advance the careers of our fast learners through our Competency Assurance Programme, which helps us identify opportunities for internal promotions.
Our ongoing training efforts also include Arabic language courses for non-speakers, in addition to technical training to select employees in the UAE. We also encourage our employees to pursue higher education and technical qualifications in their areas of specialisation, and we celebrate their individual accomplishments.

In the UAE Crescent Petroleum launched two key initiatives in 2019, the month-long Crescent Learning Month and the Crescent Toastmasters Club. Crescent Learning Month is an internal training programme designed to promote essential business skills, build greater understanding of major corporate functions, and spark engagement among employees.

Crescent Toastmasters Club is a corporate club affiliated with Toastmasters International, the non-profit organisation that aims to develop leadership and communication skills. As of December 2020, the club has held 25 meetings, both in-person and online, to teach employees in the UAE organisation, interpersonal, critical thinking, presentation, and public speaking skills.

Managing health, safety, security, and the environment

Our approach

Sustainable development is a pillar in Crescent Petroleum’s business strategy. Since our start in 1971, we have worked to balance economic development with the broader long-term needs of the community, promoting social and environmental sustainability, and mandating responsible operations across all our locations.

This approach is reflected in our core values, which make the health, safety, security, and social and environmental impacts of our operations as key indicators of our success, requiring us to work closely with industry partners and local and regional leadership to build enduring relationships with the communities where we operate and live.

The company has established a series of principles underpinning our commitment to maintaining high standards of performance in all areas of business and operations. These include:

	Conducting activities in a responsible manner that protects the health, safety and security of our workforce and the public;
	Maintaining the integrity of our assets;
	Minimising impact on the environment and using resources efficiently;
	Monitoring and managing the impact of our activities on neighbouring communities;

	Holding mutually beneficial community relationships and engaging with our local stakeholders in a transparent and inclusive manner;
	Creating shared value and delivering lasting positive socioeconomic benefits to our host countries and communities; and,
	Aligning our operations and activities with the UN SDGs within our sphere of influence.

The company’s HSSE&SP Management System Framework provides a systematic approach to delivering our objectives, and assigns clear responsibilities and consistent processes to identify, control, measure, and monitor HSSE&SP risks in the business.

Raising standards

During 2019 we focused on five key areas for improvement:

Improving risk management process and execution:

A revised risk management process was developed for use in expansion projects in the KRI, and was successfully applied across facilities, drilling, and seismic activity planning and execution. This was achieved through practical coaching of specific project teams in the principles and application of good risk management approaches.

Refreshing Control of Work (CoW) systems in preparation for expansion works:
The CoW process for production operations in the KRI was fully reviewed and revamped during the year, with dedicated training and refreshers implemented across all shifts. The expansion project CoW process was developed to support construction activities and deployed in early works.

Enhanced reporting and investigation, with particular emphasis on near miss events and high potential incidents:
We have improved reporting and review of near miss performance with increased emphasis on learnings to reduce risk in the KRI. The incident investigation process and root cause analysis approach were refreshed with increased training undertaken.

Strengthening contractor management process, from selection, through execution, to monitoring and review:
A revamped contractor management process was developed and deployed for all contracts associated with the expansion project in the KRI, drawing upon industry guidance. Contractor onboarding processes were enhanced with an improved contractor kickoff process, clarity of expectations, and review and monitoring processes.

SP management:
We have enhanced and expanded Social Performance management ahead of the start of expansion activities in the KRI. The SP Department was enlarged with highly experienced regional and field social performance managers, together with additional field operatives in place. An SP Standard and supporting procedures were developed and deployed. Social investment programmes were refreshed and closely managed throughout the year, targeting themes of education, health, infrastructure, and agriculture. Additionally, emphasis was placed on local sourcing and employment. SP formed an integral part of contractor evaluation for all expansion activities.

Process safety and integrity:
Safety Critical Elements were reviewed, areas of improvement identified, and Written Schemes of Examination refreshed.
As we continue to progress our sustainability journey, we have identified several new priorities moving forward. These include:

• Development of the HSSE&SP management system framework for our KRI expansion.
• Refreshing the hazard and operability assessment of our existing production operation.
• Development and delivery of a geographic information system (GIS)-based social performance data management system.
• Review and assessment of proprietary HSSE&SP performance management platforms for adoption in the capital projects in the KRI.