Megamas Celebrates 20 Glorious Years !

Megamas was incorporated in Brunei Darussalam in December 1989 as a limited company to provide HSE and Emergency Response training services primarily to the Oil and Gas Industry, and was the first safety training establishment in Negara Brunei Darussalam.

Today, Megamas conducts a wide range of over 150 training and consultancy courses, mainly for Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Sdn Bhd (BSP) and their contractors, and has become a market leader with arguably the finest facilities and capabilities in SE Asia.

According to a press release, since 1989, Megamas has trained over 100,000 delegates and has achieved an outstanding safety performance of 19 years LTI free; a world record in providing quality HSE training to international standards in a safe environment.

Megamas obtained ISO 9002 in 1997, and in 2003, gained ISO 9001:2000 from BVQI.

Megamas is also one of only two private training providers worldwide conducting military training in a civilian setting. This provision is currently being used by the Brunei and Malaysian Armed Forces. This training consists of Sea Survival, Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET) including Emergency Breathing Systems (EBS) for rotor-winged aircraft.

Megamas has been training the Brunei and Malaysian Armed Forces in Borneo for six years, and the Brunei Shell Aviation for 10 years.

For many years, the management of Megamas has had a strong Bruneisation policy, which has encouraged the locals to gain more skills, expertise and knowledge in the workplace, and supported by overseas assignments to enhance their training. Today, 85 per cent of its entire staff are employed as local Bruneian citizens, many, of whom, have stayed with the company for over 10 years.

Recognition has come from overseas, in that, Megamas has also been awarded the prestigious International Safety Award by the British Safety Council for five consecutive years from 2004-2008.

Megamas is the first training provider worldwide to have undertaken a Carbon Foot Printing Study to better understand its environmental impacts throughout its core and related business. There have been other initiatives to protect the environment by installing a "Clean Burn" system on the Fire Ground to reduce smoke during the fire fighting activities and recently taking part in the planting of 500 trees in the Kerangas Forest in the Badas Triangle.

In November 2004, Megamas conducted the first-ever NEBOSH International Certificate course in SE Asia, and to-date, have successfully delivered 12 courses. Megamas is also an IOSH Centre, and conducts the one-day Working Safely and five-day Internationally approved Managing Safely courses.

Megamas is the only maritime training company in Brunei delivering internationally recognised maritime courses to meet the STCW'95 standards for seafarers. This training has helped together with Brunei Shell Tankers to equip local Bruneians facilitate an exciting career at sea working with BLNG tankers.

The enormous efforts and success by BSP to improve driving behaviours for their staff and contractors has been supported by Megamas, as being the only training provider in SE Asia approved to conduct defensive driving courses to meet the Shell Global Standards.

One of the most significant achievements in the last 10 years for Megamas has been to receive worldwide recognition from the oil and gas industry and OPITO in the UK for the development of the Tropical BOSIET Standard for tropical waters. This standard has been warmly welcomed by the industry and has become the benchmark for training standards in tropical regions.

The 1st Tropical BOSIET (OPITO approved) in the world was conducted in Megamas on 9, 10 and 11 March 2000.

Since its introduction by Megamas Training Company Sdn Bhd in 2000 in Brunei Darussalam, the number of regional OPITO approved training centres has grown considerably, and today, it is delivered worldwide in 13 countries, including Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Nigeria, Qatar, Trinidad, USA, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines.

From the 1st course delivered in Brunei Darussalam in March 2000, at Megamas, thousands of OPITO TBOSIET courses have been delivered throughout the world.

Feedback regarding the quality delivered for these OPITO offshore courses has been excellent from BSP Management, BLNG, MINDEF, and the contractor community both within Brunei and SE Asia.

Mr David Doig (CEO, OPITO) has commented that the Senior Instructors at Megamas, such as Hj Naweh, Morni Karim, Rusmi Merzuki to name a few are quote "every bit as good and equal to any instructors in the business anywhere in the world", and the former CEO for Shell EPA said that "the offshore training at Megamas delivered by locals was better than the one received in the North Sea".

In addition, the HSE courses and consultancy services have expanded with courses for the Front Line Worksite Supervisor, HSE CoRe Solutions, and developing the locals to participate in surveillance and intervention for some of BSP's major projects. These courses are being provided also to BLNG and Government departments. Megamas also plans to send their local instructors to Qatar and Oman to conduct similar courses in the near future.

In addition to developing strong links with the Brunei Government, Petroleum Unit, Brunei Department of Marine, RBA, JKR, Ministry of Development, Brunei Economic Development Board, and MINDEF, Megamas has also developed strong links in the region with many prestigious and long term clients including Total, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Petronas, Shell Sarawak Berhad, Tidewater Marine, Agip, Chevron and Texaco.

Today, all offshore training delivered to the OPITO International Standard for BSP and their contractors are delivered by local Bruneian citizens. This is a truly outstanding achievement by Megamas, and one, which the Managing Director, Hjh Khadijah Mohamed, is very proud, and to share with all the various bodies who have made it possible, Brunei Shell Companies, Brunei Government, and all contractors.

She said, "Megamas is a family and many of our staff have been together with us for the duration, over 20 years, and have always have stayed loyal to the principles of honesty and integrity by which the business has been managed, and the 'Visions' for the future."