Success Factors for Safe T&I Execution in Oil Refineries

Excellence in performance is paramount in any business. In the oil and gas industry however, performance and safety are intimately related, and no refinery can hope to succeed by prioritizing production over its employees’ wellbeing. As far as businesses go, Oil Refineries are a unique breed: the intensity and concentration of required manpower, the constraints of space and resources, the internal and external shifting regulatory dynamics that monitor everything from environmental impacts to housekeeping conditions, the required permits for performing on-site jobs, and even the need for flame retardant clothing. There are many daily managerial decisions that directly impact employee livelihood, and these are not simply requirements set by a governing body. Adherence to the necessities of a carbon restricted facility certainly leads to excellence in performance, but more importantly, it is the safety and confidence that is instilled in the workforce that will end up being the driver of success.

This fact cannot be emphasized more than during a Turnaround & Inspection (T&I), where every day of delayed operation carries heavy financial consequences. A T&I is a planned event where part, or the entirety of a refinery is off stream for an extended period of time. The fact that the equipment is off stream adds preservation and corrosion hazards in and of itself, but even besides that, draining the hydrocarbons and ensuring correct shut down and start up procedures are very critical tasks. More so than during normal operation, T&I’s require close tracking and clearly defined activities in order to ensure timely execution, but above and beyond that, any event that impacts the safety of the workforce will cause both financial and human losses, exposing the business to a delayed start up on top of a demoralized workforce.

In 2017, Riyadh Refinery of Saudi Aramco – its most complex and only inland refinery with a capacity of 130 MBD – underwent a 3-months long T&I that involved the commissioning of the “Clean Transportation Fuels Project”, a $350 million project aiming to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel and more environmentally friendly fuels. With more than 6000 contractors and 10 million recorded man hours without a major injury, Riyadh Refinery has implemented a comprehensive safety system that ensured nothing fell between the cracks. Smooth and efficient T&I’s in both 2017 and 2014 are evidence of the success of this safety system. Riyadh Refinery has tackled the issue of T&I safety by implementing a company system driven by the “4 CB’s”: People Conversation, Empowerment, Collaboration, & Decision Making.

Furthermore, Health, Safety, & Environment (HSE) team, comprised of members from different units, encourages dialogue and cross discipline efforts. Communication becomes much more streamlined as a result, and an automated dashboard detailing refinery metrics concisely shows progress made. Training & awareness sessions are Controlled in order to ensure that any hazardous activities are performed with adequate precautions which, when all is said and done, culminates in the Competency of the workforce in anything safety related.

The HSE team is headed by the Operations Compliance group and had Loss Prevention representatives where efforts included conducting awareness sessions for Aramco employees and contractors. As a means to increase understanding, sessions for contractors were made in their native language, covering topics such as “Emergency Response Plans”, and “Safe Working Practices”. Aramco employees and contractors alike are empowered to stop any unsafe act or condition seen in the field. This open reporting system communicated directly to frontline employees, created an environment of vigilance and comradery, as individual action was encouraged, but collective responsibility was enforced.

To further drive the point of communication, meetings were conducted with Operations representatives, Area Execution leaders, Safety Compliance teams, Loss Prevention representatives, and contractors to comprehensively review the Scope of Work in order to ensure complete hazard identification. Preemptive action is much more effective than dealing with the consequences of unforeseen hazards, and identifying critical jobs requiring safety analysis served that purpose wonderfully. The “Safety Flyers” initiative: an informative one page summary of a subject that has a high expectancy of escalating an incident if precautions are not followed, is one such action taken to serve this purpose, and is published every other day. Topics for these flyers are selected according to conditions encountered during the shutdown, and refinery statistics help guide topic selection, as analysis shows the distribution of unsafe acts around the facility.

While communicating and cooperating is of chief importance in a T&I, actions must also be taken in a consistent way to promote safety and overall health. To such an end, random Medical Checkups for employees in the field were carried out on a daily basis, measuring blood pressure, blood sugar and O₂ saturation. This allowed for recommendations to be made as to the efficacy of certain contractors in such situations as working a confined space or taking on a high elevation job. This activity, coupled with the Aramco practice of reviewing contractors’ detailed schedules, ensures alignment, compliance and proper Control of taskforce and equipment.

All of the described activities, must of course be carried our Competently, and systems are in place to confirm that is the case. Turnover procedures for example, between the night and day shift are scheduled to slightly overlap, allowing seamless transition of activities. These procedures detail the execution of tasks in the field, and also serve as a directory of completed activities. Documenting an executed task is also scrutinized as Quality Assurance/ Quality Management (QA/QC) representatives are located on field, the former developing a set of processes used to prevent mistakes of defects during execution, and the latter reviewing the quality of all involved factors, all of which impact safety in execution.

Analysis of all safety related activities are centralized in the Safety Observation System, a solely designated software developed in order to analyze unsafe acts and conditions in a diligent manner. With a friendly user interface, members from operations, maintenance, or engineering teams may log any unsafe acts or conditions. The information is then further categorized into areas such as “Eye Protection”, “Leaks”, etc. and a notification is sent to all concerned personnel such as the area owner/foreman so that corrective action might be taken. This system, along with a Work Permit System, Job Safety Analysis software and HSE Dashboard all serve to give timely information with significant importance, especially during the T&I period. Key Performance Indicators are read and scored through these systems, giving management great oversight and a quick and efficient way to remedy any problems.

To conclude, safety in the field is of vital importance, and Riyadh Refinery has taken every measure possible to ensure that its workforce knows that, and takes it seriously. The benefits of this not only extend to employees wellbeing, but also improve Refinery economics in the long run; having fewer safety related incidents allows a shorter down-time and less lost man hours, doubly stressing the payout of safe T&I execution. It is a holistic view that the refinery takes which allows it to extend its safety efforts to influence both frontline operators, and office employees. Measurements, standards, and designated software are all in place to touch on both sides of the refinery business.