It is vital that companies develop a strong safety culture in order to benefit from reliable and stable operations, avoid damage to their facilities and avoid environmental catastrophes and provide a safe working place for its employees as well as improving margins.
Historically, accidents mainly occur due to the following reasons:
- Mistakes in design or poor control during manufacturing and construction
- Unnecessary cost cutting on maintenance or asset management measures and materials
- Ineffective oversight of safety culture
- Low-level training for normal operations and abnormal situations, lack of understanding and importance and key elements of process safety by both operators and managers, thus increased risk of the human factor impact
- Deficiencies in integrity program & fatigue prevention policy
- Procedural errors e.g. lack of reporting, irregular updates of procedures, lack of compliance with regulations, incl. requirements for paperwork
- Weak safety barrier management
- Inadequate hazard & risk assessment caused by poor understanding of management of change principles
- Insufficient oversight by regulatory agencies and/or independent inspectors, i.e. lack of HAZOPs, lack of feedback and follow-up on previous reviews
By adopting a rigorous Process Safety Management system this will help to ensure safe, smooth and reliable operations.
Systemic causes of incidents are specific for each stage of a project and includes:
- Leadership
Lack of corporate support and management focus on Safety - Design and Procurement and Construction
Failure to design plants to the very highest standards and also inadequate inspection and control during manufacture and construction - Maintenance and Reliability
Inadequate maintenance and inspection of operating units - Management of Change
Failure to recognise and control hazards in any change - Operation
Lack of operational discipline. Complacency and lack of ongoing training. In the Middle East region, it is usual to have operating staff from many different countries and staff turnover is quite high, therefore there is a need to ensure continuous training.
Safety leaders need to address important issues and develop the company’s own customised vision on:
- Company policy on major accident risk
- Identification and assessment methods for major accidents and risks
- Criteria on risk tolerability and approach to residual risk
- Balance between safety, environmental and financial performance
- Governance systems to be in place. Definition of roles and responsibilities for process safety
- Corporate standards and practices
- Required capability of resources and competences to effectively manage the risks
- Crisis management and emergency response organisation
- Measurement and monitoring the performance on major accident risk
Management of Change (MoC) is crucial; managers need to be sure that written procedures exist to cover changes to process chemicals, technology, equipment, procedures, & facilities that affect the process (e.g. organisational changes).
This applies specifically when upgrading existing Units to more modern technology etc.
MOC procedures must make sure following issues are addressed before change is made:
- technical basis for the change
- impact of the change on employee health and safety
- required modifications to operating procedures
- time required for change
- authorisation requirements
- communication and training requirements
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) also are needed to understand how well organisations are performing in relation to their goals and objectives.
KPI’s are essential for a number of reasons such as : improvement is only possible when you can measure current condition and compare to a benchmark that is to be achieved; KPI is a basic element of systematic management of operational risks; major accidents derive through multiple failures that should be contained by several protective barriers; KPIs can consist of effective leading and lagging indicators.
To develop and maintain a comprehensive KPI system, a comprehensive and simple procedure should be followed on a regular basis:
- Review current Process Safety KPIs – engage all parties
- Establish current performance mechanisms
- Review present indicators
- Develop set of KPIs
- Compare with benchmark (best practices)
- Analyse relevance, measurability and compliance with strategy
- Clarify the scope and boundaries
- Select the right audience, ensure understanding
- Prioritise, choose and decide
- Set priorities, discuss, adjust
- Develop KPI proposal, confirm and report
- Provide clear and accurate communication
Even though there is no universal solution for 100% safety level and zero incidents, all successful companies that lead the way in terms of reliability and credibility, use this 5-step guide to prevent major incidents and accidents:
- Audit existing practices
- Train Staff in Process Safety Management and communicate regularly
- Develop systems and processes to fill gaps
- Develop KPI’s for PSM
- Review and Audit on a regular basis
CONCLUSIONS
- Process Safety Excellence should be a target for all organisations
- Leadership commitment is essential
- A Process Safety Management System should be established incorporating all aspects of PSM
- Training and communication is essential
- Ongoing audits and review are essential to ensure all aspects of Process Safety are kept up to date
Euro Petroleum Consultants is a technical oil and gas consultancy with offices in Dubai, London, Moscow, Sofia and Kuala Lumpur. Euro Petroleum Consultants also organises leading conferences including OPEX MENA 2020 – Excellence in Safety & Operations - which will take place in Bahrain from 6 to 8 October 2020.
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