Facility risk review as a means to addressing existing risks during the life cycle of a process unit, operation or facility

Abstract

In today's process industry environment, it is becoming more and more important for companies to manage the risks associated with their plants. Amongst others, some reasons for this are that 1) Process Safety is featuring high on the agenda of Trade Unions; 2) that Management is coming under increased pressure to provide a safe workplace; 3) that Companies are trying to survive in the current competitive environment by adopting the “zero accidents” ideal; 4) because the effects of accidents that do occur are becoming more devastating due to increased inventories and the exotic nature of products and 5) the fact that overseas companies are looking at safety and conservation track records before choosing business partners or considering trade agreements. Regulatory directives such as OHSA'S (Occupational Health and Safety Act, Act 85 of 1993) Major Hazard Installation Regulation in conjunction with SABS 0228 (hazard group 1) is another newcomer entering the playing fields of South African Companies and is in the future going to have a serious impact on Company philosophies and policies. In this Regulations “Risk Assessment” is defined as “a planned programme to reduce, to remove, and to control a major incident”. This can be interpreted as having the meaning/objective to involve some type of Risk Management programme which will co-ordinate inter alia the risk assessment function. Also defined is “ Major Incident”, which reads: “It is an occurrence (including in particular, a major emission, fire or explosion) resulting from uncontrolled developments in the course of an industrial activity, leading to a serious danger to persons, whether immediate or delayed, inside or outside the installation, or to the environment, and involving one or more dangerous substance” To address this problem of managing the risks in a facility/plant/operation is no mean feat. Cost factors, time constraints, manpower availability, legislatory pressures and uncertainty on the most applicable risk assessment method to use, are just some of the problems facing management. Adding to this dilemma is the fact that the reviewing specialist has to choose from a variety of risk assessment methods that have varying degrees of complexity, cost and applicability. Past experience has however shown that Hazard and Operability Analysis (Hazop), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Fault Tree Analysis and Event Tree Analysis are the most widely used and well accepted. Choosing the right assessment method which will provide the information management needs to address the facility's risks is often the most difficult part in the whole assessment process. With this paper we are providing an overview of such a risk assessment method, namely Facility Risk Review (FRR) which uses a combination of techniques of a qualitative and quantitative nature. These methods are similar to those currently being used with great success in the risk assessment process at the facilities of the Sasol Group of Companies. These methods are in use from the initial conceptual design stage of any project or change up to the stage where the facility has been in operation for many years.