Health & Safety

The effective management of health and safety, the environment, human rights and community engagement (collectively called “HSEC”) is essential to growing our business in a sustainable and responsible manner.

Gunvor therefore assigns the highest priority to preserving the health, well-being, human rights and safety of our employees, our customers, and the communities in which we operate; as well as respecting and protecting the environment in the countries with which we do business.

In 2022, the Group met its personal health and safety objectives and continued working on reducing the number and severity of its process safety incidents, as part of its journey towards zero incidents. All incidents are investigated and lessons to learn identified and communicated to all Group’s assets.

Product Safety

Many of the products Gunvor trades, fuels in particular, are highly flammable and often present other hazards; for example, certain naphthaNaphtha refers to a variety of volatile, highly flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixtures used mainly as solvents and diluents, as well as the raw material for conversion to gasoline. Reference: OECD <https://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=4614>... Read more products are carcinogenicCarcinogenic refers to any substance or agent that has the potential to cause cancer in living tissues. The mechanism by which carcinogens cause cancer can be complex and varies depending... Read more. To ensure proper handling of those products, Gunvor communicates the hazards, precautionary statements, and risk managementRisk Management in the context of energy commodities trading refers to the identification, assessment, and prioritization of uncertainties followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and... Read more measures to our clients through Safety Data Sheets (SDS).

The format of the SDS is regulated by a globally harmonized system of the United Nations, and is further regulated by local product safety regulations, such as the REACH regulation in Europe, or the Hazard Communication Standard in the US (29 CFR 1910.1200).

In several regions, such as the European Union, products may only be put on the market if the manufacturer or importer has submitted a registration dossier to the audiences including scientific information on the hazards for human health, safety, and the environment, as defined in REACH regulations. This information is the basis for the definition of risk management measures communicated in the safety data sheets.

Gunvor’s library of safety data sheets currently holds hundreds of items for various products, legal entities, and languages and its REACH registrations allows for the manufacturing or import of various petroleum substances and biofuel components in the most important economic areas (such as the European Economic AreaThe European Economic Area (EEA) is a partnership between the European Union (EU) members and three of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries - Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. It... Read more). Gunvor manages compliance with these regulations through procedures, a training module, and auditing. As far as the company is aware, no incident took place that could be related to product safety management by Gunvor.

Process Safety

Process safety covers the management of low probability incidents that would have major consequences on people, environment, assets and our reputation (PEAR). Managing the risks of such an event occurring is extremely important for Gunvor and forms a major element of Gunvor’s HSEC governance and procedures.

Gunvor monitors its performance by recording all process safety events (incidents and near misses) in the categories established by the American Petroleum Institute (Tiers 1, 2 and 3) and takes all events seriously regardless of its tier.

A Tier 1 event is defined as an unplanned release of material above certain volumes or with consequences above certain thresholds. Tier 2 events are releases with lower quantities or with lower consequences. Tier 3 are near misses that under slightly different circumstances could have led to a Tier 1 or 2 event.