INSIGHT: Process safety must be led from the top

21 November 2008 15:55  [Source: ICIS news]

By Nigel Davis

LONDON (ICIS news)--Process safety is paramount in the chemicals industry. Companies operate often complex, and sometimes potentially dangerous, processes on a wide scale. Safety incidents may occur on any plant at any time, anywhere.

It is a case of being best prepared, of understanding hazards and risk, and of leading by example.

But companies are challenged to continue to develop process safety leadership and better process safety management. In the current dramatically weakened demand environment plant closures and subsequent restarts test those management capabilities to the full.

It is widely believed that leading from the top is fundamental to the achievement of best practice. But what is safety leadership?

“Real leaders have to demonstrate their commitments by walking the talk which means going out to see for themselves,” says chair of the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Judith Hackitt.

“All too often, senior managers and directors are far too detached from the reality of what is actually taking place on the ground.

“Every board also needs to consider what the real vulnerabilities of their process are and address them, and they also need to know that it is OK to seek help and advice from others. That’s also part of real, honest leadership.”

Hackitt’s words are to the point as the sector globally struggles to develop better and more effective approaches to process safety and operations are challenged by the economic slump.

Companies are cutting back capital expenditure in an extremely difficult operating environment. And next year, some firms will only be spending for essential maintenance. In such an environment there is an increased risk that safety might be compromised.

Some of the blame for the tragic explosion and fire at the BP Texas City Refinery in March 2005 was laid on stricter cost controls. BP’s chief executive at the time, John Browne, was also called to account. Companies cannot afford to cut too far or take actions that might hinder strict safety control.

A further, and separate, challenge is to operate some processes at reduced rates as market demand falls away.

The UK Chemical Industries Association has completed a series of visits among its member companies to determine whether process safety management and leadership practices are place in the sector.

One of the questions asked in the survey was whether anyone on the board had read the Baker Report on the BP Texas City incident, or the reports on the oil depot explosion at Buncefield in the UK. A further question was whether any action had been taken on the recommendations.

The CIA work, conducted in 2007 and 2008 showed no examples of cash restraints on clearly identified process safety spending needs. An “extremely high level of experience, commitment and competence at site manager and SHE (safety, health and environment) manager level”, was found according to the CIA.

A few companies had process safety issues, however, and there was not always clear agreement on how best to deal with them.

A series of process safety best practice indicators was forthcoming from the research which will be used to launch a series of specific actions to try to improve the whole chemical industry approach to process safety.

The BP Texas City accident, particularly, raised the level of discussion worldwide on plant and process safety and schemes are being developed to develop robust incident reporting methods. But individual companies and trade associations cannot seem to agree on the best reporting methods.

The US Center for Chemicals Process Safety (CCPS) has developed laggard and leading metrics that seem to have the best chance of being adopted as global standards but it does not look as if the European chemicals trade federation Cefic can support the initiative fully.

Europe is falling behind as it tries to develop its own systems and it is clear that major companies would like to see things speed up. There is urgency behind the development of acceptable measurement metrics.

“Reporting metrics on a constant basis will not only benefit peer-to-peer benchmarking and transparency, but will benefit industry as a whole by demonstrating to the public that our performance is improving,” Dow Chemical said at a recent Responsible Care meeting.

Process safety can be better managed if company and industry performance goals are better understood.  

To discuss issues facing the chemical industry go to ICIS connect

By: Nigel Davis
+44 20 8652 3214

< previous article(VIDEO - ICIS news Europe Lunchtime Bulletin 2 November 2009)

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly