We continue to evolve and advance our management systems in a manner that aligns with Hess’ portfolio and organizational structure. As part of this process, in 2018 we reorganized into teams of functional leaders (e.g., Environment, Health and Safety (EHS); Wells; Human Resources; Supply Chain), which helps us continue to improve oversight and assurance across the company and provide expertise in key functional areas within each asset. The Head of each functional area is responsible for overseeing activities in that area across the company, verifying that relevant standards are applied as appropriate and working with each asset to optimize safety, quality, delivery and cost.
The Heads of each function are supported by technical authorities (TAs) – many of whom are embedded directly into our assets. Together, these individuals form the “Heads of” and Technical Authority (HTA) Network, which supports operations across the company. This group meets monthly to support enterprisewide initiatives, promote transparency of activities and optimize synergies across our functions and assets.
In 2019, under the leadership of the HTA Network, we completed development of the Hess Operational Management System (HOMS), a single, enterprisewide system that houses and integrates the various standards, procedures and other governance documents in use throughout our operations. HOMS establishes a common operational framework outlining how we aim to address risk management, process safety, environmental responsibility and management of personnel and contractors, as well as the efficient and reliable design and operation of our assets. A HOMS manual supports HOMS implementation and provides direction on how the management system guides and integrates our work across functions and locations. Ultimately, we expect that HOMS will help us to manage risks associated with a changing organization; coordinate technical expertise, standards and processes across the organization; and align asset-level operations with enterprisewide corporate governance documents and business priorities.
Ongoing assurance and continuous improvement will continue to be central aspects of how we manage our organization, including through audits and assessments of our implementation of and compliance with HOMS. Key operations and processes will be regularly reviewed based on assessed risk and compliance requirements.
In 2020, we are streamlining Hess’ enterprise- and asset-level safety and operational standards, procedures and other governance documents as part of our implementation of HOMS.