A scheme which saw more than 62,000 employees of liquefied natural gas exporter RasGas undergo engineer training in Qatar has been hailed as a success by a company spokesperson.

Dave Marchak, RasGas Venture Group manager, says that the firm's Common Offplot Projects (COPs) set "new benchmarks for project execution excellence, particularly in the area of safety performance".

The engineer training involved in the COPs has seen guidance given to up to 9,000 people who were employed at any one time from workforces spanning 40 different countries.

RasGas's commitment to safety standards was recently recognised in Qatar as the company secured two gas industry accolades from the president of ExxonMobil Development Company.

The COP team took one of the titles, while the second went to the RasGas Subsurface Group, following an assessment of the teams' safety performance over the course of 2008.

Special recognition was also given to the Onshore Project Management Team involved in RasGas Venture Expansion Phase 2.

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