Reza Huzainie - A career path into Occupational Health and Safety

Given the many potential dangers, health and safety is particularly important for those working within the oil and gas industry. Ensuring that staff, processes, and procedures are safe is an integral part of any operation in this field, making it essential that anyone working in his area has the correct skills and training for the job.

Malaysian-born Reza Huzainie has been in the oil and gas industry as Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) practitioner for over 15 years. With Bachelor’s Degree in Technology, minor in Mechanical Engineering from University Technology PETRONAS, he has experience in providing HSE expertise for both project and corporate environment. Project HSE management skills include providing HSE support during Front End Engineering Design (FEED), Offshore Exploration (Seismic Acquisition and Drilling), Offshore Block Development (Fabrication, Pipeline/Structure Installation, Offshore Hook-Up and Commissioning) and Operations phase for upstream capital projects. Corporate HSE management knowledge includes the development, implementation, administer and auditing of all HSE Management System (HSEMS) key processes and elements for several reputable multinational oil and gas organizations.

Reza is currently working with ConocoPhillips as HSE Lead for Malaysia Business Unit, taking care few exploration projects and corporate HSE matters. He was previously employed by several oil and gas organization – Kebabangan Petroleum Operating Company (KPOC) as Project HSE Engineer who responsible for HSE planning and execution of KBB Northern Hub Deepwater Development, SapuraAcergy as Project HSE Engineer for Gemusut-Kakap Deepwater Installation Project, WorleyParsons as Senior HSE Advisor for Risk and Reliability Engineering Projects, AkerKvaerner as Regional HSE Engineer for South East Asia project executions, Kencana Petroleum as Project HSE Engineer for several structure fabrication and offshore installation projects, and Reza’s first job was with PETRONAS Corporate HSE Unit (currently known as PETRONAS Group HSE) as HSE Trainee where he was assigned as Deputy Project Manager for the Development of Group HSE KPI and Group Incident Reporting System which, during that time, was planned to be used by PETRONAS group-wide.

15 years of professional experience in his field has given Reza the opportunity to work in various countries across five continents including USA, Myanmar, South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, Norway, Oman, Thailand, Brunei, Angola, India and Russia. Overseas assignment has given him an insight into different work cultures, practices and procedures – especially about HSE practices.

Although Reza came from technical and engineering background, he does not believe that educational background is mandatory for those wishing to get into HSE, as he explained, “I always advise fresh graduates that the degree that you are holding is not a 100 percent guarantee of what profession you are going to end up in. You need to gain experience relevant to what you want to become and, definitely, you need to back up your knowledge and skills with some vocational certifications”.

Following his own advice, Reza opted for short-term courses that were directly relevant to his work in HSE, including courses on assessment such as Bowtie Assessment, Qualitative Risk Assessment, Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), Formal Safety Assessment Primer, Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP) and task-based competencies such as TapRoot and Tripod Beta Investigator, HSE Lead Auditor, and many more.

In line with his view that “any aims should be sky high”, Reza decided to upgrade his task-based competencies to internationally recognized certification. He was responsible for the design and operational safety of offshore facilities including platforms during that time, so he decided to begin with the NEBOSH International Technical Certificate in oil and gas. It was 6 years ago before he decided to take the NEBOSH International General Certificate (IGC) at TWI after he realized that his job scope now covers more occupational HSE and it is relevant to the IGC’s syllabus.

Speaking on IGC’s syllabus, Reza said that it is up-to-date, informative and relevant to what is being practiced in the industry. More specifically, he found that TWI’s lecturers were highly competent and able to deliver the course effectively with the interactive method of teaching. He enjoyed the course definitely!

Reza is familiar with TWI’s CSWIP scheme and position as a global leader in inspection and technical vocational training, which made him confident to enroll the course with TWI. Reza noted, “I would definitely recommend TWI to others. My classmates and I all agree that the entire experience, from the registration process and interactions with the helpful administration team all the way to the class attendance, has been very smooth and pleasant”.

Reza believes that holding a NEBOSH IGC is definitely going to help him with his longer-term career progression. Designed to meet international demand, the NEBOSH IGC is one of the criteria that is frequently asked for as a prerequisite in most of occupational HSE or risk evaluation positions. Holding this certificate widens the range of prospective employers for candidates in this field, not to mention having a positive impact on your salary expectations.