(110a) Dynamic Process Safety Barriers Management at Petrobras

Dynamic process safety barriers management is a systematic monitoring of the integrity and reliability of preventive and mitigating barriers, defining responsibilities, and consolidating information at all levels of the corporation – operational, tactical and strategic. This process actively and dynamically contributes to the prevention of possible accidental scenarios.

Monitoring the status of process safety barriers in industrial facilities makes it possible to act proactively to maintain their integrity and manage the risks of the facility.

The approach adopted by CCPS, API, and IOGP classifies process safety metrics into four layers ("tiers"), which can be arranged in a pyramid, where events are grouped according to their consequences. Acting on proactive indicators allows the identification of deficiencies in the management system in advance, allowing the implementation of corrective measures that reduce the potential for the occurrence of accidents.

The proposed solution will allow continuous and dynamic monitoring of process safety barriers in all operational areas of the company, acting proactively, allowing analysis and prioritization of preventive and corrective actions, contributing to the reduction of process safety events (TIER 1 and 2) and avoiding possible penalties and interdictions.

In order to facilitate the implementation of this process in the company, a work group was created and carried out the following activities:

• Established the mandatory requirements for the selection of a commercial tool for barrier management software and sent a consultation to the market through an RFI (Request for Information);
• Held a seminar with other oil and gas companies in order to identify the solutions already adopted by these companies and discuss alternatives;
• Developed testing methodology for software tool selection in a Pre-qualification environment;
• Selected the software tool based on previously elaborated tests;
• Prepared the adopted methodology guide - bow tie, in order to support the software implementation process;
• Prepared a methodology for implementing the software tool and the technical specification of the contractual document.

The Dynamic Process Safety Barriers Management implementation will be carried out, for the most part, in the period 2021 to 2024. Some activities have already started, such as: the design of the management process at the operational, tactical and strategic levels, with the respective performance metrics and monitoring standard; and the integration of different databases with the commercial software tool to allow automatic updating of information.

This work will present the system adopted to implement the tool at Petrobras, with the respective challenges and lessons learned.

The Dynamic Process Safety Barriers Management implementation at Petrobras is an important step in the improvement of process safety management through a decision support system to dynamically monitor the integrity of the facilities' safety barriers.