March 23, marked the three year anniversary of the BP Texas City refinery explosion.

The United States Chemical Safety Board (CSB) recently released a detailed video of the event.  The video, Anatomy of a Disaster, provides an in depth look at the incident.

Among other issues discussed, the CSB video shows what can happen when a corporate culture that values production over safety is not recognized and addressed.  As an industry, we have an obligation to provide a safe work place.  Providing a safe work place is also good business.  Every person working in our industry should learn what a generative safety culture is comprised of and strive every day to achieve that culture.

In the book Managing the Risk of Organizational Accidents, James Reason describes a generative culture as one that:

  • Actively seeks safety information
  • Trains and awards the messengers
  • Shares responsibility
  • Welcomes new ideas
  • Institute far reaching reforms when failures occur

Many of our organizations have implemented programs to try and move more toward establishing a generative culture. This change may take a significant amount of time and resources, but we owe it to ourselves and the newer generation of oil and gas industry personnel to implement and sustain this change.

An organization’s process safety management (PSM) system can provide many tools to help establish a generative culture.  Elements providing guidance on safety information, hazard assessment, incident investigation, mechanical integrity, and contractor management are closely linked to actively seeking.  Management of change and the procedures for addressing hazard assessment and incident investigation recommendations provide an avenue for evaluating new ideas and managing far reaching reforms.

Sharing the responsibility is a part of a good employee participation plan.  All personnel, from the roustabout to the chairman of the board should have a commitment to become competent within the system that has been established to manage an organization’s safety culture.

The May, 2007 Tip of the Month, mentioned a statement from the Baker Panel report of the Texas City incident.  “……People can forget to be afraid.”  The Tip of the Month now is an accident prevention pillar from the Center for Chemical Process Safety’s (CCPS) Risk Based Process Safety system.  Learn from experience.

To learn more about the CCPS accident prevention pillars and changing your organization’s safety culture, check out PetroSkills HSE courses HS 45, Risk Based Process Safety Management and HS 44 Fundamentals of Risk Assessment. Our participant centered style of training that is used in PetroSkills Facilities courses provides an outstanding environment to learn from our experiences.

By: Clyde W. Young

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