Human Failure; is Process Safety Management the Answer?

DUBAI, UAE, August 14, 2011 -

In a recent survey conducted by the International Quality and Productivity Centre, 81.8% of the 2,243 oil and gas respondents defined the human factor as “very important” for Process Safety Management (PSM). Building PSM into operations and process design has become a key focus in the Middle East, with 86.4% of respondents already at the implementation phase of PSM.

Major safety accidents in recent years have highlighted the high price of safety failure and the need for process to be put in place to avoid future disasters. Incidents like Macondo do not occur as a result of singular component failure, but from a series of process and human errors.

BP issued a report last year which addressed the multiple process flaws that contributed to the cause of the accident; “a complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgments, engineering design, operational implementation and team interfaces.” Whilst the National Oil Spill Commission concluded, “Most of the mistakes and oversights at Macondo can be traced back to a single overarching failure-a failure of management.”

Although PSM is an effective tool for limiting multiple mechanical or human mistakes, the process needs to be implemented throughout various departments within the organisation and essentially a process safety culture needs to be created for successful execution.

ENOC’s Group EHSQ Compliance Director, Waddah S. Ghanem and Carlos V. Tan, Group EHS Advisor will be conducting a panel discussion on how to address the human factor in process safety management at the 3^rd Annual Process Safety Management Summit, being held from 18-21 September 2011 in Abu Dhabi. Carlos V. Tan will also be giving a presentation on how to drive improvement through monitoring, metrics and indicators, defining how to utilise inspection to monitor PSM and implement tracking and data collation systems for effective analysis.

Some other key speakers include; Ali Alrahbi, VP QHSE & Security, Dolphin Energy; Samir Saad Aly, HSE General Manager, KHALDA Petroleum; Tor Bjerkestrand, Asset Integrity - Process Safety Manager, PDO; Mohamed Ahmed-Al-Muflehi, Health and Safety Manager, ADMA-OPCO and Houmoud Al-Ajmi, Team Leader PSM, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.

The summit is sponsored by Emerson, ABB, Siemens, Honeywell, Invensys Operations Management, Petrotechnics, Safer Systems, Velosi Group and Amor Group, CPD Limited.

For more information about the event and to download the brochure please visit www.oilandgasprocesssafety.com

Contact Details:

enquiry@iqpc.ae
+971-4-364-2975

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