Former Chevron boss get gas inspector job

(CNS):  The Cayman Islands’ government has appointed Duke Munroe as Chief Petroleum Inspector to oversee the safety and regulation of the sector. According to government officials Munroe who is a native of Guyana comes to the civil service directly from the private sector and his former job as the Regional (functional) Manager for Chevron in the Caribbean.  Munroe said having worked with the Cayman petroleum inspectorate in that job he was very impressed with the functioning of the department and its mandate as required by law which is what encouraged him to apply for the post.

"It was the most structured, well-defined and organized regulatory body to which the major petroleum companies were subjected, in all of the territories I managed under Chevron,” Munroe said.

Alan Jones, Chief Officer for the Ministry of  District Administration, Works, Lands and Agriculture  said he has a strong academic and engineering background and looked forward to his contribution to the office.

During his tenure with Chevron, Munroe worked in finance, accounting, legal, logistics and supply chain management, procurement and administration. Over almost 10 years in the petroleum industry, one of his key roles was safety, health and environmental stewardship.

“While these areas are critical to everyone in the petroleum industry, my role was more active in driving compliance in these areas. This involved complying with standards across the industry and its governing bodies.  Further, my responsibility at Chevron covered 15 countries in the Caribbean and South America, including the CaymanIslands.

Essentially, in my latter years I managed the company’s assets (retail, industrial properties and facilities) in these territories,” he added.

Munroe has a B.Eng. and an MBA he joined Chevron in 2002 and said that working in one of world’s largest industry with an elevated potential for major hazards, an eye for detail backed by formal processes of scrutiny and oversight are important. “You need to respect even the smallest amount of risk and evaluate that risk constantly,” he said. “I look forward to the next few years in the role as Chief Petroleum Inspector and hope to build on the accomplishments of my predecessor and the current team in the department. The activities currently carried out by the department are indicative that the Inspectorate is evolving.”

The Petroleum Inspectorate (PI) was established in 2003 to ensure that sound industry codes of practice were adopted. It was also charged with ensuring that safety and environmental management systems are effectively developed and implemented and ensuring that proper emergency planning and coordination are carried out.

Additionally, the role of Petroleum Inspectorate is to assess whether the petroleum and compressed gas industries are adequately managing their obligations to safeguard health, safety and the environment by regularly conducting inspections of the facilitiessuch as the bulk storage terminals, service stations, marinas, utility companies, Liquefied Propane Gas (LPG) facilities, compressed air facilities, industrial and wholesale tanks and vehicles transporting petroleum.