Samsung C&T Achieves Key Safety Milestone in Abu Dhabi

South Korean construction and engineering giant Samsung C&T has achieved a major safety milestone on its UAE High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) project by clocking 30 million work hours without a single lost-time injury (LTI).

The UAE HVDC project is being developed for Abu Dhabi Offshore Power Transmission Company (AOPTC) and involves the construction of four power converter stations for converting alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), together with two major subsea power transmission systems.

Samsung C&T said the milestone was achieved after more than four years of construction activities carried out across challenging onshore, offshore, and subsea environments, demonstrating the project’s robust health, safety and environment (HSE) management systems.

The project is divided across four separate locations: two onshore sites near Abu Dhabi and two offshore islands accommodating oilfield facilities. Its locations include Shuweihat, Mirfa, Das Island and Al Ghallan Island (AGI), with certain project sites separated by 140km.

This geographically distributed, multi-island configuration creates safety-management challenges beyond those of a conventional construction project concentrated at a single site, said the company in a statement.

Hence work plans, risk controls and communication procedures must be coordinated across locations with different environments, operating conditions and access requirements, it added.

The project includes one transmission system with a capacity of 600 MW, extending over 140km and a second system with a capacity of 1,000MW, spanning 134km, said a statement from Samsung C&T.

At the UAE HVDC project, 3,000 personnel are engaged each day for more than four years without an accident classified as an LTI or above, it stated.

The achievement also reflects the consistency required to uphold the same safety principles across onshore converter stations, offshore islands and subsea construction areas.

Since the project’s pandemic-era groundbreaking, safety measures have been continuously applied across different work scopes, participating organizations and stages of construction, it added.