Air Products, a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 75 years, said it had achieved a major milestone by clocking 25 million safe man-hours without lost time injuries (LTI) during the mechanical completion of world's largest industrial gas complex at Jazan in Saudi Arabia.

The Pennsylvania-based company said it was proud of its earned reputation of successfully executing the engineering, building, owning and operating of large-scale projects for customers around the world.

Air Products announced that with this feat, it has added another successful large-scale example to its build, own and operate model portfolio.

Air Products was awarded a 20-year contract in 2015 by Saudi Aramco under a joint venture (JV) of Air Products (25 per cent) and Acwa Holding (75 per cent) to build, own and operate the world's largest industrial gas complex that will have a capacity to supply 75,000 tonnes per day (20,000 oxygen and 55,000 nitrogen) to Saudi Aramco's refinery and Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle power plant in Jazan.

"And if successful completion of the plant, with its remote location and regional climate challenges was not enough, the Air Products team completed the world-scale complex without a lost time injury in 25 million worker hours," remarked Dr Samir J Serhan, the executive vice president at Air Products.

The Jazan Project was executed by Air Products' major execution centres in the UK, US, China and India with active engagement of employees in Saudi Arabia. The now mechanically complete industrial gas complex is expected to be brought onstream in phases in 2019.

"For the Air Products team members involved to complete this project with the extensive worker hours required, facing varied challenges, and to do so without a lost time injury is a truly exceptional milestone. It speaks of the dedication to safety, and extreme focus on the task to be completed," remarked Dr Serhan.

"The confirmation of our success was the agreement of the customer that we had reached the mechanical completion stage of the construction project. Going forward, when a prospective customer is interested in Air Products' expertise, we can point to a map and say, let me tell you what we accomplished at Jazan," he added.

Dr Serhan said overall it took approximately three years to engineer, procure and construct the world's largest industrial gas facility.

"The project is significantly larger than anything executed by Air Products to date, and the global company engineering effort speaks to our engineering capabilities and expertise," said the top official.

"On top of that, there was the massive recruitment effort to bring the construction workforce and others to the location, train them, and have them understand our focus on safety. The construction success and safety results all speak to the execution by our team," he added.

The Jazan project effort required the hiring of new sub-contractors for almost all of the construction scope. At peak construction periods, a workforce of 6,000 people were at the site.

The result was a multi-national team of people from over 30 countries filling the varied roles necessary for the construction project.-TradeArabia News Service