After SA I&C’s invitation to the three major petrochemical players to comment on their positions regarding operational and critical safety measures, Engen responds with the following article.
The Engen refinery has an impressive safety record which is better than some major world players. There are various engineering standards that Engen refinery adheres to, to ensure safety of the plant and of its people.
* Emergency shutdown and protection systems.
* Maintenance and inspection.
* Good operating practices and procedures.
* Good management of change procedures.
* People behaviour (the most critical one as about 80% of incidents are attributed to some form of human error).
Engen adheres to the Petronas Technical Standards (PTS), the American Petroleum Institute (API) and ASME codes. Due to refineries being run by the systems mentioned above, refineries are considered to be some of the safest industries in the world.
Maintenance and inspection
Engen uses the RBI methodology, which ensures continuous improvement in its safety standards. This integrity tool helped us to achieve a mechanical availability of 98% in the current calendar year.
Operating practice and procedures
These are updated regularly and strictly adhered to. Appropriate staff training takes place as required.
Management of change (MOC)
This involves hazards and operability studies, risks assessments and mitigation. The MOC procedure provides a structured approach to capture all the risk associated with changes.
People behaviour
Safety achievement is a good way of measuring people behaviour. Our safety record gives us confidence that our people behave in an acceptable way.
A top-performing refinery needs a good safety record. People and their behaviour are the keys to success in keeping themselves safe, the equipment reliable and the air clean. For this reason Engen places strong emphasis on safety training, including the proper training of contract workers.
There are various programmes that Engen has implemented to ensure that people behave in an acceptable and safe way at work. The programmes are as follows:
* DuPont Safety Training Observation Programme (STOP).
* Turnaround strategy.
* Incident management through Sitesafe.
* Our 'Great Days' programme.
DuPont Safety Training Observation Programme (STOP)
Engen has trained all personnel on site extensively on the DuPont Safety Training Observation Programme (STOP). The programme teaches employees and contract workers to be vigilant and to observe their own and their colleagues' activities. It promotes constructive feedback and attention to detail in work habits. Training for this ongoing initiative was completed in 2003, and lost time injuries and medical treatment cases have reduced dramatically as a result.
Engen benchmarks against USA figures and our numbers are better than the safest area in the US, namely the Gulf Coast. The average number of medical treatment case injuries per 200 000 man-hours is 0,82 in the Gulf Coast area. At Engen Refinery, it is 0,68. The Gulf Coast average number of lost time injuries per 200 000 man-hours is 0,24. At Engen Refinery it is 0,16. These figures include the temporary workers brought on site for turnarounds and show that the Engen Refinery would be considered a safety leader, even in North America. This is especially impressive as few other facilities include contract or temporary workers in their statistics.
Turnaround strategy
Engen has moved away from massive shutdowns. Our strategy is to focus on small, unit-focused turnarounds. This enables us to select experienced workers, and makes supervision easier and improves control.
Refinery management participate in Job Task analyses during turnarounds early in the day before the work begins - to drive home the importance of safe behaviour.
Incident management
Engen has implemented a software tool called SiteSafe to measure the footprint of our incidents. A pilot project was started in 2000 at our lube oil blend plant, and was implemented at the refinery in 2001. It has since been put in place at our depots and distribution centres and in all our retail and commercial divisions.
The refinery in particular has capitalised on SiteSafe's powerful reporting and graphing capabilities, which enable us to establish what types of incidents are occurring and where. Another powerful feature of the system is that anyone who observes an incident is able to log it and SiteSafe facilitates the process to ensure that it is investigated.
By recording our leading indicators or near-hits and investigating them to find the root causes, we prevent future incidents occurring. All corrective actions are escalated to management via e-mail if not completed within an agreed period.
Great days
A Great Days programme is part of the refinery performance contract and as such impacts on yearly bonuses and pay increases. It includes measurement of community complaints, power trips that could lead to flares and/or smells and the quality of our effluent. If any of these do not meet tight specifications, it is not a Great Day. This concept helps us to drive these very important long-term issues on a daily basis.
Can Bophal happen in South Africa?
The incident such as happened in Bophal cannot happen at the Engen refinery. Engen Refinery specifically does not have large volumes of toxic chemicals like the ones that escaped from the Bophal plant. Regular reviews by international insurance specialists indicate that the most significant hazards at refineries are related to flammable material with a very low risk to neighbouring communities.
The shareholders' role
Engen's shareholders have been very supportive in our efforts to maintain our Health Safety and Environmental standard within the top 10% of international refineries. A clear indication of the commitment has been on our continued expense on environmental issues. This refinery has committed about R60million per annum in the recent past to environmental improvements. The environmental outcomes speak for themselves.
* All levels of pollutants released from Engen refineries are measured in the vicinity, all monthly and yearly averages meet the World Health Organisation standards - which are tougher that any standards applied in California.
Our shareholders have a philosophy of world-class health, safety and environmental performance in all the plants they own, hence their strong support for ever-improving performance.
For more information contact Barbara Manson, communications manager, Engen, Barbara.Manson@engenoil.com, www.engenoil.com
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