Chapter 3 - Philosophy of Protection Principals

Abstract

The protection of petroleum facilities follows the same philosophy of protection principles that is applied to any building or installation. The basic requirements are personnel evacuation, containment, isolation, and suppression. Because these requirements are design features that cannot be immediately brought in at the time of an incident, they must be adequately provided as part of the original facility design. An organization should have a well thought-out protection design philosophy that is understood and accepted by the management. The safety design philosophies should be reflected in the engineering design standards or guidelines followed by the organization. The standards or guidelines form the basis from which the safety of the facility can be audited against. Organizations that do not provide such information do not have any accountability standards to meet or achieve, and therefore, the safety of the facility suffers accordingly. Additionally the objectives of design standards and guidelines can be better understood if the philosophy of design is documented.