Process safety group issues final Buncefield paper

The Process Safety Leadership Group's (PSLG) final report on the Buncefield explosion recommends minimum safety and environmental-protection standards for all sites storing large volumes of gasoline.

The report and recommendations, issued on the fourth anniversary of the explosion, are also intended for use across all major hazard sectors, including the chemicals industry.

Following the massive explosion at Buncefield Oil Storage Depot in Hemel Hempstead, PSLG has worked with regulators and trade unions to learn the lessons from the incident and recommend measures to prevent a recurrence.

As the lessons extended beyond the oil sector to other high-hazard sites, the industry stakeholders included the chemical sector as well as oil/fuels and tank storage.

The PSLG report builds on recommendations previously developed by the Buncefield Standards Task Group, which provided comprehensive guidance in addressing all 25 recommendations of the Buncefield Major Incident Investigation Board (MIIB) report on the design and operation of fuel-storage sites.

In its conclusions, PSLG said industry has already made progress in addressing the task group's recommendations and in the areas of high reliability organisations and delivering high performance through culture and leadership.

It added that a period of gap analysis will be undertaken to identify where additional work is required, prioritising this work on a risk basis and agreeing timescales for implementation with the CA (COMAH Competent Authority).

Responding to the PSLG report, Steve Elliott, chief-executive of the Chemical Industries Association, said: 'While the focus of the report is quite properly on the oils and fuels sector and in particular bulk storage of gasoline as the main priority, we recognise there are many aspects of the recommendations that all sectors, including chemicals, can learn from.

'Indeed we have already been making good progress in raising both awareness and standards in many of these areas, including process safety leadership, as part of CIA's ongoing work plans.

'It is our task now to look at the fundamental differences between chemicals and the oils/fuels sector and to find the optimum way for some of these generic lessons to be applied more broadly to the chemical sector.

'We therefore welcome the opportunity, which the report outlines, to discuss these issues with the regulator and come to an agreement on the best way forward.

'We also support wholeheartedly the move to greater sharing and cooperation across sectors, which HSE has challenged industry to deliver, and we are working actively with colleagues from other sectors on this,' Elliot finished.

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