Process safety – learning the hard way
Steven Cooper A B and Casey Meakins AA Advisian, Level 12, 333 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000.
B Corresponding author. Email: stever.cooper@advisian.com
The APPEA Journal 60(2) 616-619 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ19096
Accepted: 4 March 2020 Published: 15 May 2020
Abstract
Did you hear about the leak at the gas plant last week in Tasmania? What about the high potential incident from the dropped object at the chemical plant in Queensland? What about the fuel depot that went up in flames in Victoria? And what about the tragic scaffolding accident in New South Wales? What do you mean you don’t have time and that you have a meeting to go to….? Learnings are everywhere, as is the pressure of business and operational expectations to have continued sharing of lessons learnt. When do you have the time, let alone your teams and operations have the time, to appreciate the lessons? We do many great things to manage hazards and solve others’ problems, yet how can we ensure that the lessons are actually being learnt? This paper shares the 25 years’ experience from a Process Safety Professional, highlighting learning successes and failures from operations and projects executed around the world as well as from direct teaching experiences concering the fundamentals of process safety. It touches on the responsibilities we all have as process safety professionals and what we can do to enhance learning opportunities for both engineering and non-engineering audiences alike.
Keywords: accident, auditory, be curious, Cairns BLEVE, Coode Island, incident, kinaesthetic, learning, lesson learned, longford, St Peters, visual.
Steve Cooper is a Professional Process Safety Engineer, currently one of just a few in Australia. He is a Chartered Chemical Engineer with over 25 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and onshore petrochemical industry. His specialist fields of competence include concept selection, safety engineering, formal safety assessments, risk assessments and computer consequence modelling of hydrocarbon and toxic chemicals. Steve currently leads the Advisian Asia Pacific Upstream and Midstream Consulting part of the Worley Group. He has held Chief Safety Engineer roles and has been part of design and operations teams. Steve has been a Director of the Institute of Chemical Engineers Fundamentals of Process Safety Course for the past 11 years. He received a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) Honours (2nd Class Upper) and a Diploma of Industrial Studies from the University of Loughborough (1992–1996). |
Casey Meakins is a Process Engineer with over three years’ experience in the hydrocarbons and water industry. She has a dual Engineering (Chemical Engineering) and Business Management (Sustainability) bachelor degree from The University of Queensland (2015). Casey has practical design experience as a Process Engineer from working on brownfield projects for Queensland Curtis Liquefied Natural Gas upstream coal seam gas assets. Casey is a key part of the Advisian Conceptual Development team, responsible for completing conceptual modelling and summarising the key technical outcomes for industry. Casey was also the Communications and Engagement Director for the WorleyParsons Graduate Development Organisation, responsible for shaping the future development of younger engineers. |
