With the exception of the Petroleum Company of Port Arthur in Texas, USA, and two others in Europe that are on level 9 in the world, the National Refining Company of Cameroon, SONARA, has entered the 'Honours List' as one of the safest and best quality places to work in the world.

SONARA was in March, this year, ranked on Level 8/10 on a scale of 1 to 10 on the International Safety Rating System, ISRS, standards.The rating was done following a meticulous audit conducted in March at the Refinery in Limbe by a team of some Canadian experts from the France based group, DET Norske Veritas, DNV, based on the ISRS standards.

The barometer used by the ISRS experts took into consideration strategies that have been employed by SONARA, since 2002, when the last ISRS was done, to prevent accidents at the Refinery, master dangers and control all sorts of losses.

After a close scrutiny of the Company's safety modus based on some 20 areas of concern: health, job security, leadership and administration of the ISRS programme, training, personal communication among others, the DNV experts declared that from level 5 on 10 in 2002, the Company has moved appreciably to the level of 8 points on 10, this year. It was baffling because as the authorities said, they had been gunning for a level 7 pass mark, but, surprisingly enough got eight points on ten.

It was for this reason that the General Manager of SONARA, Charles Metouck, invited the Southwest Governor, Louis Eyeya Zanga, top personalities and many other people, who joined the SONARA family Wednesday, September 24, at the SONARA Club, to fete what could be aptly described as the fruits of hard work.

When the cheerful looking Metouck took the podium, he said that the occasion was not just one to celebrate their victory but an opportunity for him to thank his workers. To the GM, the trophies and recognitions that SONARA has grabbed in the recent past have been as a result of the commitment and the zeal of the workers to do their best.

The GM recalled that in 2002, when he took office, he signed a performance contract with the workers that was geared towards ensuring better production and stepping up the quality of SONARA's products and services. "Today the results are there for everybody to see," Metouck said.

"No matter what a company's plans are, without the good will and commitment of the workers behind it, then, the plans are doomed to fail," Metouck added.

Meanwhile, SONARA management advised its workers not to go to rest but to keep up the spirit for their best bet now was to reach level 9/10 by 2012 when, hopefully, the next audit will be done.During the celebrations, the Coordinator of the ISRS in SONARA, Mr Alain Wa Longla, took time off to explain to the audience how they came about arriving at Level 8. He said SONARA joined the ISRS in March 1998.

They were rated level 3/10. This meant, at the time, that the level at which SONARA was ensuring safety at the job site, offering social and health services to its workers and managing the reduction of loss was still low.

The Management, by December that same year, Wa Longla said, took the option to make amends at the level of its performance. They targeted to improve safety standards to the level of 7. In 2002 when the ISRS reviewers came round, SONARA had made a little though appreciable effort and was rated 5/10.

Still burning with the desire to make things happen by reaching their target of level 7, SONARA set off in 2002 by adding more "fuel' to their 'safety ambitions."They toiled and moiled just to make SONARA the safest place and most comfortable one to work in. 2008 came and the difference was made. Level 8 attained!

The Public Relations and Communication Manager of SONARA, Blasius Ngome, described the success as one which one cannot light his lamp and hit under the table. Also, the Manager in charge of Safety, Quality and the Environment in SONARA, Derrick Takere, exclaimed that 'never in the history of one company has so many trophies been won in so short a time."

Takere's exclamation led on to the disclosure and presentation of a series of other recognitions that SONARA has just won in the most recent past.

These were: the Super Trophy that was awarded this year to SONARA as the pay for the best performing refining company in the world. Takere said that SONARA emerged as winner of the Super Trophy from a poll of companies around the world with a total work force of some 67,000. SONARA has some 600 workers.

In 2007, SONARA was second in the bid for the Super trophy contest. The Super Trophy, they said, was awarded by a French based study group, GESIP. The group, they said, concentrates on evaluating the performance of petroleum companies around the world.

Besides, SONARA also got the best Laboratory prize (Certificat laboratoire ISO 17025/2005) and a Quality Certificate awarded yet by the ISO 9001.

To crown it all, various speakers on behalf of the company, said that in terms of safety, SONARA is on record to have gone for the past 1224 working days in the Refinery without incurring any industrial accident that has been able to keep a worker out of action. This mark, they intimated, has contributed enormously to their being rated among the top flight companies in the world as far as safety was the matter.

They disclosed that the ISRS which started in the USA in 1987, and in Cameroon in 1998, was being practiced in some 60,000 companies around the globe.As to what this attainment now means to SONARA, the authorities were up beat that after having ascended onto the "Honours Roll" of the best companies in the world, they were condemned to keep the standards by continuing to ensure better hygiene for the workers, better health, reducing work risks, improving on leadership and management and limiting loss.

This, they said, is to guarantee a more sustainable future for the company.The celebrations were crowned by the visit of stands where some of SONARA's products were being displayed and some of its activities being explained.