Oil & Gas

Oil and gas sites run stricter permit and HSE regimes than general industry, and a contractor who cannot produce documentation on request does not get through the gate. Method statements, risk assessments, technician documentation, insurance certificates, and evidence of a managed health and safety system are checked before mobilisation rather than after.

MUMTAZ holds ISO 45001:2018 for occupational health and safety, ISO 14001:2015 for environmental management and ISO 9001:2015 for quality, under trade licence 546486, with municipality pest control approval in Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Ocean Oilfield is a MUMTAZ client. Work at height, confined-space adjacency, powered access and chemical use are all governed by that system, and permits are raised through the client's own permit-to-work process before any crew mobilises.

The work itself is heavy industrial cleaning. Hardstanding and yard areas accumulate oil, hydraulic fluid and ground-in residue that needs degreasing chemistry and dwell time rather than more pressure. Workshops need floor scrubbing, machine surrounds and overhead structure cleaning. Warehousing and stores need high-level racking work and rodent programmes.

Marine and offshore support adds fumigation and pest control for vessels, dry docks and containers, which is an unusual capability among facility services companies and one we hold through our marine pest control work. Container and cargo fumigation with certification runs through the same division.

Pest pressure on these sites is driven by the same things as anywhere else, food waste in welfare areas, harbourage in stored material and rubble along fence lines, and water from washdown and leaks. Perimeter discipline matters more here than in most sectors because the surrounding environment is often open desert or coastline.

Accommodation camps and welfare facilities are a substantial part of the workload and the hardest part to keep on top of. High occupancy, shared kitchens and shared bathrooms mean treatment alone will not hold; it has to be paired with a housekeeping and waste regime the operator will actually maintain. We scope both and are explicit about which part is ours and which is the site's.

Remote and Western Region sites are scheduled rather than attended at short notice, because of the distances involved. For those locations a recurring programme is markedly more effective and better value than reactive call-outs, since travel is planned into the schedule instead of becoming an emergency each time. Manpower supply and facilities management contracts are available alongside, which suits operators who would rather deal with one contractor than assemble several.

The most expensive failure on these sites is not a poor clean; it is a crew that mobilises and cannot start. Distances are long, gate procedures are strict, and a permit that has not been raised or an induction that has not been booked turns a planned day into a wasted one for both sides.

We handle our half deliberately: technician documentation, insurance, method statements and risk assessments issued in advance, and confirmation of what the site requires before anyone travels. What we need from the client is equally specific, who raises the permit, when inductions can be scheduled, what escort or access arrangements apply, and whether the area will actually be released at the agreed time.

For shutdown work the sequencing matters even more, because the window is fixed and shared with other trades. Cleaning frequently sits behind mechanical work and ahead of reinstatement, so a realistic handover time from the preceding trade is worth more than an optimistic one. We would rather plan around the truth and staff accordingly.

For recurring work, we set the programme so that visits to remote sites are grouped and planned into the schedule. That is both cheaper and more reliable than reactive attendance, where every call-out becomes a long-distance emergency competing with committed work elsewhere.

Heavy industrial cleaning generates run-off, and on oil and gas sites what happens to it is scrutinised. Degreasing a hardstanding produces contaminated water that cannot simply be hosed to the nearest drain, and a contractor who has not thought about containment and disposal creates an environmental incident on the client's permit rather than their own.

Our ISO 14001:2015 environmental management certification governs how products are selected, used and disposed of, and containment and disposal routes are agreed as part of the method statement rather than improvised on site. Where a client has its own waste contractor and disposal procedure, we work to it.

Chemical selection is constrained in these environments for good reasons, compatibility with coatings and equipment, restrictions near process areas, and the site's own approved chemical register. We submit product data sheets for approval ahead of mobilisation rather than arriving with something that gets refused at the gate.

The same discipline applies to pest control products. Municipality-approved products are used, applied at label dilution and contact time, with records of what was applied, where and by whom. On sites where an environmental or HSE audit can be called at short notice, that record is a substantial part of what the contract is for.