G4S : achieves major safety milestones in Iraq for Basrah Gas Company

G4S Iraq has protected more than 55,500 personnel movements for the Basrah Gas Company (BGC) since its contract began in January 2016, securing those working on Iraq's biggest ever gas project

G4S has provided private security details and close protection security during more than 4 million km of movements and 1 million man hours worked, without any safety incidents or lost time incidents, while meeting all the key performance metrics of the contract.

BGC Managing Director Simon Daman Willems said; 'Safety is our number one priority in BGC. The safety and security of our people, our assets and the communities living around them are our number one concern.'

BGC is the largest gas project in Iraq's history and the world's largest flares reduction project.

The project is designed to capture, treat and then monetise gas - which was historically wasted and burnt off producing flares - from three giant oil fields in southern Iraq: Rumaila, West Qurna 1 and Zubair. BGC estimates that if the gas captured is turned into electricity, it would generate enough to power millions of homes in southern Iraq or if monetised, could inject substantial investment annually into the Iraqi economy.

G4S employees are put through intensive security training, road safety and defensive driving training. The team transports a high volume of BGC personnel everyday across an area of southern Iraq which is approximately 80km by 100km square, in extremely difficult conditions with temperatures rising to up to 50+ degrees in the summer. The major safety threat is the appalling state of the road network, with road traffic accidents the biggest risk.

G4S Iraq project manager Duncan Martin-Smith said; 'The milestones achieved are a testament to the commitment of our team, who are highly trained to protect and secure BGC personnel in an environment where the infrastructure is chronically under invested. It is an enormous achievement and it takes careful planning to deploy this vital security operation safely on a daily basis.'

BGC's management, engineers and operatives who work on the oil and gas field operations are escorted to their place of work and then accompanied throughout their working day by a close protection security detail. BGC employees work at a range of different sites including offices, compression stations, de-gasing stations and other outside areas within the oil and gas fields.

BGC personnel operate from several bases in the Basrah surrounds and are transported to their work locations by the G4S security teams utilising armoured vehicles.

The operation is run from a central command centre where the G4S Iraq management team plans out the complex daily movements and close protection arrangements. Every vehicle is fitted with a monitoring system that allows the command centre to observe the teams operating on the ground.

The vehicles are serviced every 4,000 miles and G4S has built a Toyota accredited vehicle refurbishment facility in the G4S Headquarters located in Iraq Energy City, Basrah, so that the vehicles can be regularly maintained and upgraded.

BGC is a joint venture between Iraq's South Gas Company (SGC) holding 51 percent, Shell, with 44 percent and Mitsubishi Corporation with 5 percent.

G4S is the leading global, integrated security company, specialising in the provision of security services and solutions to customers. Our mission is to create material, sustainable value for our customers and shareholders by being the supply partner of choice in all of our markets.

G4S is quoted on the London Stock Exchange and has a secondary stock exchange listing in Copenhagen. G4S is active in around 100 countries and has 585,000 employees.