In the past Iranian year of 1382, which ended on 19 March 2004, NPC organized and held over 50 firefighting drills at the sites of its process plants.
The drills aimed at making plant operating personnel, firefighters and other safety staff members fully prepared to effectively battle any emergencies including, fire outbreaks, release of dangerous and flammable gases and materials in a bid to reduce work-related accidents. Safety and firefighting training reached over 250,000 man-hours last year for the personnel working at the process plants of Bandar Imam, Arak, Razi, Shiraz, Tabriz, Esfahan, Kharg, Khorasan and Orumiyeh complexes. The training included all those working at sites including the NPC's staff and the contractors' personnel who are provisionally working at the sites.



Much of the training, around 55 percent, was provided to the contractors' personnel.




NPC is planning to hold a specialized training program for its fire and safety staff in collaboration with the Fire Service College, U.K. The program is expected to be conducted in the near future at the Petrochemical Special Economic Zone, where NPC is building some 10 grass root petrochemical plants.
In preparation for the program, experts from the U.K. Fire Service College have already visited operating plant sites as well as the firefighting equipment and facilities available at the Zone to get acquainted with and get first-hand information on the existing conditions there.


The NPC's Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Department, has plans under way to develop and release a new safety and firefighting manual. The decision for developing the new manual has been taken in the wake of employing new systems and technologies in NPC's projects.
The new manual seeks to incorporate updated safety regulations for the modern equipment. This will enable the employees to be fully acquainted with safe procedures of plant and equipment as well as procedures to deal with emergencies.


In order to ensure that their operations are not having an adverse environmental impact, regular environmental monitoring surveys are being carried out at the NPC's process plants. To this effect, the plants underwent over 110 day/person visits and surveys in the past Iranian year, which ended on 19 March 2004. The plants are required to meet the strict regulatory standards set by Iran's Environmental Protection Department.
Meanwhile, regular Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) are also made into the NPC's projects, which are currently under construction.
As required by Iran's environmental standards, the EIA process has now become an intrinsic part of the projects and forms a valuable stage in confirming the appropriateness of a selected concept. Detailed engineering and execution phases are allowed only after EIA determines that the projects don't have adverse impacts on the environment.
During the execution and construction phase, regular checks and inspections are also made so that the local environment is not negatively affected by the construction activities at the sites of the NPC projects in Assaluyeh, Mahshahr and other locations.


NPC has carried out a comprehensive sewerage and industrial effluent management project at Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex.
The project aimed at improving production processed to minimize the amount of effluents and their pollution,separating non-polluted waste water from the polluted one,improving and renovating waste water collection network and pretreatment units.
Meanwhile,implementation work has started for constructing 4 industrial and sanitary waste water treatment plants at the Petrochemical Special Economic Zone and at Razi,Fajr and Mobin Petrochemical Complexes.
Meanwhile,detailed engineering work is underway for two other treatment plants; one at a makeshift employees camp in Assaluyeh and another one in Fajr Petrochemical Co.