Process Safety Strategy

Energy Division Process Safety

 

This section works to prevent the loss of containment of process plant and equipment.

A separate specialist team within the Energy Division conducts fire and explosion control and mitigation.

Aims:

·         To support the policy of HSE for the control of major accident hazards offshore

·         To engage with, and command respect from, our stakeholders

·         To be fair, consistent, and transparent in our dealings with dutyholders

·         To be a well resourced source of expertise in process safety in offshore applications

·         To participate as part of a multidisciplinary team in offshore safety case assessment, inspection, and investigation

·         To stimulate research and development for the prevention of major accident hazards

·         To maintain awareness of current developments in process safety

·         To inform the offshore industry of developments in process safety topics

 

How we achieve our aims

To support the policy of HSE for the control of major accident hazards offshore

 

We are concerned with process safety issues particularly in terms of integrity and the prevention of loss of containment of hydrocarbon inventories.

 

We provide a centre of specialist expertise, relevant to the offshore industry, in process safety, process integrity and chemical engineering;

 

Our work directly supports the Departmental Strategic Objectives target for reduction in offshore hydrocarbon releases through:

 

·         Investigations (primarily loss of containment of hydrocarbons)

·         Inspection

·         Safety case assessment

·         Giving technical advice and producing guidance on offshore process safety issues

·         Promoting inherent safety in new designs

·         Input to relevant codes, standards and industry guidance.

 

To engage with, and command respect from our stakeholders

 

Inspection prioritization takes account of current key programmers and other OSD projects.

We also priorities topics based on statistical evidence and experience from inspections and investigations.

To be fair, consistent, and transparent in our dealings with duty holders

 

We develop and use internal guidance to ensure consistency and transparency in our dealings with duty holders.

 

The main guidance we use as a basis for inspection and assessment is available on the internet or otherwise publicly available.

 

We have special responsibility for investigation of hydrocarbon release incidents and cascade the lessons learned both internally and externally.