Petronas Gas reports accident at Kertih plant

August 19, 2014

PETRONAS being chatty as usual. Insiders, any insight?

Dateline 2014-06-19, The Star:

An employee of a contractor undertaking repairs at Petronas Gas Bhd’s plant in Kertih, Terengganu succumbed to his injury following an accident there on Wednesday night.

Petronas Gas said on Thursday an accident occurred at 11.15pm on Wednesday at its facility near the gas processing plant 4.

It said it was extending all necessary assistance to the family members of the victim.

“Currently, the company is working with the relevant authorities to establish the cause of the accident,” it said.

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Major Accident Hazards (Public Nuisance)

August 6, 2014

In the world of technical safety, there is a term called Major Accident Hazard / Event (MAH / Event). It can be described as a hazard or event that cause a major accident (duh),which as defined by the UK HSE as:

  1. a fire, explosion or the release of a dangerous substance involving death or serious personal injury to persons on the installation or engaged in an activity on or in connection with it;
  2. any event involving major damage to the structure of the installation or plant affixed thereto or any loss in the stability of the installation;
  3. the collision of a helicopter with the installation;
  4. the failure of life support systems for diving operations in connection with the installation, the detachment of a diving bell used for such operations or the trapping of a diver in a diving bell or other subsea chamber used for such operations; or
  5. any other event arising from a work activity involving death or serious personal injury to five or more persons on the installation or engaged in an activity in connection with it;

As elaborated by a National Oil Company:

A Major Accident Hazard is typically a low probability, high consequence event, which requires a different approach to the occupational safety management processes.

In Malaysia, I this would also be covered under CIMAH, Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards.

I suggest a new category be put into place to cover Major Accident Hazards to public utilities, for example pollution and loss of water resources. The definition can follow that for MAH, paperwork can be as onerous (call me for help), penalties can be as sever, upto summary execution without due process (yes, I moved into sarcasm territory). I call dibs on MAH(PN).

Please note that, no matter how much you want to, one bad taxi driver cannot be a MAH(PN). I think that suggesting a taxi driver causing major damage to an institutional structure (tourism, national goodwill, etc) is too extreme, even for me.

To eliminate the cause of the MAH, or minimise the effects of the MAH, barriers are put into place (Safety Critical Elements) with a minimum expectation of performance (Performance Standard). For example, if the consequence of the MAH in question is strong BO, the SCE is use of deodorant (or seclusion from the public), with a PS criteria of daily use (or permanent exile).

Bow tie diagram taken from Highly Reliable Performance Blog published by the DOE Office of Corporate Safety Analysis (HS-30)

 

 

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Scots worker dies on Malaysian oil rig

June 6, 2014

Dateline 2014-04-17, The Scotsman:

An INVESTIGATION was under way yesterday after a Scottish oil worker was found dead on a rig off the coast of Malaysia.

The body of Ross Flett was discovered on the Transocean Rather drilling platform by his colleagues on Sunday.

The 35-year-old was a ballast control operator and had worked for the oil and gas firm for more than six years.

He lived with his wife, Morag in Buckie, the coastal town in Moray where he grew up.

It is not yet clear what caused Mr Flett’s death, but his employers have launched an investigation on the rig to try to find out what happened.

A spokesman for Transocean said: “We regret to confirm a fatality on board the drilling unit Transocean Rather.

“The fatality occured at approximately 9:10am local time on 13 April.

“A Transocean employee working as a ballast control operator was found without vital signs. The company has started an inquiry into the circumstances leading to the incident.”

…

 

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IChemE 5th Regional Process Safety Seminar

June 4, 2014

The  IChemE 5th Regional Process Safety Seminar was held in Miri Marriot Spa & Resort, Miri Sarawak, Malaysia on the 22nd April, 2014. I hope the attendees were entertained and energised by my 5 minute presentation.

The following are my quick notes of the Q&A session are as follows (all misunderstandings are mine):

Keynote address: Process Safety Matters – why chemical engineers must lead the way in getting the right safety priorities on the agenda.
Keynote speaker: Judith Hackitt CBE, Chair of HSE, Britain.

  • Leading indicators are important. For example, number of temporary measures to address process / hardware failures, amount of delayed maintenance.
  • Number of Loss of Containment (LOC) incidents is not an indicator of process safety.
  • Q: Transfer of UK HSE knowledge wholesale to Malaysia.
  • Q: What is the best model to achieve safe operations, is it voluntary and regulatory regulations, and where does the safety case fit in?
  • Q: How best to share safety information. Are legal/ commercial concerns stemming the flow of information?
  • Q: Options on building a reporting culture in Malaysia and Asia.

Paper 1: Process Safety Implementation – Challenges and Success Stories
Speaker: Dr. Bea Ponnudurai, Head, Group HSE Division, PETRONAS.

  •  Information transfer between Gen Y and earlier generations. Gen Y may have a problem communicating.

Paper 2: I Get The Case for Safety – What About The Safety Case; what senior leaders need to know and do to ensure the robust implementation of the Safety Case
Speaker: Martin W. Iversen AFIChemE, Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Operational Assurance Manager, Talisman.

  • Q: How do you make a safety case for things that have never happened before?
  • Q: Challenge ourselves in creating these hypothetical cases, get external input.
  • Q: How do I implement and prioritize a Remedial Action Plan?

Paper 3: Getting The Balance Right – or Feel The Strain
Speaker: Paul Heierman-Rix, Principal Consultant, MMI Engineering.

  • Suggest independent review of the safety cases, i.e. other than the author (I like).
  • Are the Safety Case and COMAH similar, what are the differences? Suggest principles are the same.

Paper 4: Incidents That Happened That Blamed Human Error
Speaker: Roger Ainsworth CEng CSci CEnv FIChemE, General Manager, Megamas Training Company Sdn Bhd.

  • How do we treat old plants? They should be given more supervision and attention then new ones.

Paper 5: Using The Success Of Operational Safety “Life Saving Rules” Into Process Safety
Speaker: Willem Peuscher, HSE Delivery Manager, Shell Malaysia Exploration and Production.

  • Q: Incident happens at least expected times. How do we account for this? Focus on key messages and life saving rules.
  • Full enforcement of life saving rules.

 

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Anniversary – Deepwater Horizon

April 20, 2014

Drilling Engineers never forget.

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HSE tops risk agenda in oil & gas sector

June 30, 2013

Engage me at exorbitant rates to provide soundbites on this topic:

Oil and gas companies’ health, safety and environment (HSE) remains on top of the industry’s risk agenda, according to Earnst & Young’s new report “Business Pulse : Exploring the Dual Perspective of the Top 10 Risks and Opportunities in 2013 and Beyond”.

Dale Nijoka, Ernst & Young’s Global Oil& Gas Leader, said: “The industry is undergoing intense focus on safety and environmental risk preparedness and mitigation, and in light of corporate social responsibilities, economic challenges and regulatory pressure, managing this risk is vital for long-term sustainability.

…

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