UK Health and Safety Executive Publishes Buncefield Evidence

photo : Hertfordshire Constabulary

The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published some of the evidence being presented in the current trial of three companies over the explosion at the Buncefield depot in 2005.

As a reminder, several explosions occurred at the Buncefield Depot in the early hours of Sunday 11th December 2005. At least one of the initial explosions was of massive proportions and there was a large fire, which engulfed a high proportion of the site. Over 40 people were injured but thankfully there were no fatalities.

There was, however, substantial damage to  properties in the area and the fire burned for several days, destroying most of the site and emitting large clouds of black smoke into the atmosphere.

A number of videos and photos have been published. The videos are stunning, showing the speed at which the vapour cloud advanced. The photos show the damage to the control room and the spread of debris following the explosions.

I'd recommend all those with an involvement in chemical manufacturing to take a look and challenge your own operations.This type of incident is totally preventable if we take the time and effort to assess the risks and then take the right actions to systematically eliminate them.

Buncefield - Process Safety Leadership Group Publishes Final Report

photo : metro.co.uk

The UK Process Safety Leadership Group (PSLG) has published a report that specifies minimum standards of safety and environmental protection for all UK sites storing large volumes of gasoline.

The PSLG was set up following the explosions at fire the Buncefield fuel depot in December 2005.

The PSLG consists of expert representatives from the industry and regulatory bodies. In the course of its work, the group has established a set of 'Principles of Process Safety Leadership' as follows:

• Clear and positive process safety leadership is at the core of managing a major hazard business and is vital to ensure that risks are effectively managed
• Process safety leadership requires board level involvement and competence. For companies with boards located outside the UK then the responsibility to show this leadership rests with the most senior UK managers.
• Good process safety management does not happen by chance and requires constant active engagement
• Board level visibility and promotion of process safety leadership is essential to set a positive safety culture throughout the organisation
• Engagement of the workforce is needed in the promotion and achievement of good process safety management
• Monitoring process safety performance based on both leading and lagging indicators is central to ensuring business risks are being effectively managed
• Publication of process safety performance information provides important public assurance about the management of risks by an organisation
• Sharing best practice across industry sectors, and learning and implementing lessons from relevant incidents in other organisations, are important to maintain the currency of corporate knowledge and competence.

The principles are backed up by recommendations on organisation and resources. This blog's view is that this document is a 'must see' for all managers in the chemical industry, irrespective of location, as it provides an excellent checklist for measuring your organisation's current performance against best practice in process safety management.

Friday News Round Up

Today's round-up of news and updates on previous stories

• Total has today pleaded guilty to charges relating to the explosion at the Buncefield oil depot in Hertfordshire in 2005. A subtantial fine is likely but this will not be set until trials have been held for the other companies charged in relation to the incident. Earlier this year, the court ruled that Total should pay the property damage bills of individual and business claimants, amounting to £750m - an appeal against this decision wil be held next year.

• NOVA Chemicals annouced details of its new board of directors. As expected, the new board will have significantly increased involvement by both the group's owner IPIC and Borealis

• Dow Chemical has said that it plans to sell more assets in 2010 as it continues to work toward paying off debt from its $16.5 billion acquisition of Rohm and Haas in April. The sale will include the Styron business - the deal is expected to close in early 2010 - together with a number of smaller businesses.

• In an interview with ICIS, Peter Young of the US Investment Bank Young and Partners expressed his view that M&A activity in the chemical industry would increase meaningfully in 2010.

• SABIC came at the top of a list the largest 100 publicly traded GCC companies in terms of market value at $ 64 billion