ABSTRACT This paper describes the safety management experience gained in Petroleum Development Oman's (PDO) operations, through working with its Contractors in fine tuning proven safety management techniques such as Enhanced Safety Management (ESM) and Unsafe Act Auditing (UAA). To launch the cultural changes, ESM Workshops were run for Company and Contractor personnel. Joint safety ventures developed, leading to an improved working atmosphere at the workplaces and yielding encouraging results in accident prevention. The remaining challenges are to keep the momentum and to ensure that other safety management techniques such as UAA and TRIPOD are used in combination with the well established ESM principles.