Safety
In an industry that deals with flammable and occasionally explosive, corrosive, or toxic products, safety considerations have to be paramount. The safety of its workers and the public at large has, therefore, long been at the forefront of oil industry concerns.
Concawe compiles personal incident statistics of oil industry workers and publishes these in a yearly report since 1993. These statistics bear witness to the oil industry’s commitment to safety, consistently showing much lower incident rates than the industry at large. Through this activity, member companies also have the opportunity to exchange valuable information on incidents and to share the lessons to be learned.
Process safety is also critical to our industry. Although it is embedded in all aspects of the life of a plant, it has been comparatively less in the limelight than personal safety. Concawe is engaged in the ways and means of further improving process safety. To achieve this, Concawe initiated in 2010 the collection of Process Safety Performance Indicators (PSPI) data for inclusion in the yearly safety performance reporting.
The Concawe incident statistics for personal and process safety not only contain the number of incidents but also an analysis of incident categories and causal factors that contributed to the incidents.
The so-called “Seveso Directive” that was revised in 2013 has had a major impact on the permitting and operating requirements of industrial installations, including oil refineries, depots, and terminals. As a consequence of the major industrial accidents in Buncefield and Texas Refinery in 2005, the issue of land-use planning is back on the agenda at the European level. Concawe is willing to contribute by coordinating the expertise of our industry.
New technologies, processes, and substances have been introduced in recent years in our facilities, triggered by the energy transition. These changes are coming along with additional hazards and risk scenarios that need to be managed. On the other hand, there are also a lot of novel technological developments like artificial intelligence, offering impressive opportunities in supporting data analysis and accident prevention.
The Concawe Safety Management Group therefore also provides a platform for an exchange of best practices, lessons, and learning from incidents (LFI) amongst the members in different formats like Safety Theme Days or LFI sessions involving academia, regulators, and other industries.
