(146c) Finishing Well - Thoughts and Lessons from an Ideally Managed PSM Facility

Does a facility or group of facilities exist, where the ideal combination of culture, learnings and execution can enable these sites to a full build, maintain and completion of its life without any incidents or loss of containment events?

The answer is Yes, there have been such facilities and many in the industry believe this is possible for the future. This assessment is a big, worthwhile goal considering the combination that everyone should go home safe everyday and our process facilities deserve to be managed in the best way possible.

This paper will address areas from a macro level and micro level where ideal and successful Process safety management systems converge. In the environment we as an industry are currently in, this sort of optimism is not only needed but required, one could submit, in order to properly transition the knowledge we currently have with the current and incoming workforce who is and will be tasked with completing it.

Let’s begin with some data we know and have now, and move to implementation of what we have learned and will be applying for years to come.

What we know now:

• Since 2020, four incidents have ranked in the top 20 of largest losses (Marsh, 100 Largest Losses 26th edition)
• One major contributing factor identified as a theme has been inadequate engineering standards (Marsh, 100 Largest Losses 26th edition)
• As expertise has retired or left the industry, we have struggled as an industry to replace in-kind and with enough equivalent know-how to the next wave of younger employees (Marsh, 100 Largest Losses 26th edition)

What we can be applying:

• Specific areas of PSM, like mechanical integrity have readily accessible knowledge to apply to current processes and facilities
• Engineering standards and the implementation of best in class adoption is currently available
• There are ways to close to knowledge gap of experts leaving while using the current skills and bandwidth of our current and incoming workforce

The macro view of ideally managed PSM for processing facilities includes human behavior, process and system alignment as well as an integration of current industry SME's with more junior experience level employees. Since one of the big challenges is the transfer of knowledge, the biggest opportunity is also in the development of the "future SME's". In general the assessment must be made and acted upon that more junior, and certainly younger employees are more advanced in information tracking and sharing. This combination approach has been successfully implemented and can continue to be. One example of this involved a fairly large capital project where the cut and paste approach to a particular engineering standard used was woefully inadequate regarding a rather important part of the Mechanical Integrity portion related to corrosion as a damage mechanism. The inadequate materials that we listed within the ES, simply needed to be updated to more current and applicable materials. The impact of this was a more robust, applicable and safer material which had proven through other loss of containment incidents was not only suitable but preferred. The engagement and updated material selection criteria came from the willingness of the custodian of the ES to interface with and learn from a more junior SME with applicable and deep knowledge of the materials, corrosion mechanism and most importantly the connection of all the related parts which enabled the project to be properly positioned when turned over to the site management team. During the process the junior SME gained valuable learnings and insights as well to other factors which would be useful to elevate the total knowledge and application of best practices in line with the particular operation chemical plant.

Another case, more on the micro level involved, again an area of mechanical integrity and the damage mechanism of corrosion, where an chemical operating plant was going through a standard process of replacing insulation for several pipe galleries critical to the operation of the plant. While some of the industry RP's and prior insulative materials used for other parts of the facility were suitable, there was not an adequate, in depth review or basis of design materials, nor consultations with SME's related to the company or suppliers. It turned out, it had been quite a long time since the original materials were installed and thus the materials needed for this project represented an upgrade in technology as well as some major cost, safety and future operational efficiencies. In this case, an SME was brought into the loop after IFC drawings were issued but prior to final completed package turnover, which allowed the correct modifications to be made. This exercise, of roughly 3 billable hours, resulted in immense more clarity, scope simplicity and safety critical impacts. The basis was, the original material selected was prone to excess water absorption compared to the new material and would have accelerated the damage mechanism of corrosion at a much fast rate, leaving a huge potential problem that may or may not have been recognized in time, even with an in place RBI program which included inspection. The other empirical data on this was also presented in the Marsh 100 largest losses 25th edition. It says "Of these mechanical integrity failures, 70% were identified as being as a result of corrosion of process piping, primarily due to internal corrosion. Where external corrosion was a cause, it was as a result of corrosion under insulation." This problem has existed, we've learned an implemented more, but more still needs to be administered into the PSM process.

In summary, there is a silver lining in the pursuit of ideally managed PSM programs at facilities when you can combine the learnings of the past with currently applicable information and the integration of the next wave of PSM specialists and champions. This represents only one area, there are many more to pursue and develop within our fascinating and wonderful industry.