Implementation of Process Safety Elements Based on Commitment and Leadership

The Oil&Gas industry in Latin America has started to realize that a Process Safety Event has the potential to have significant consequences that are far direr than the costs of maintaining a safe plant. For this reason industry should focus on identifying methods to improve process safety. Common practice indicates that developing a culture of process safety is the first step to improve. The key question is how to develop a culture of process safety in an organization? When we ask this question it is necessary to think about Commitment. Management Commitment is the foundation to address this objective. In the mission to create commitment it is necessary to provide resources, however in this economic situation, how can industry financially support the resources needed? The first sentence of this abstract is the basic reason to justify the resources. How Management Commitment helps to improve the culture of process safety? Leadership. In an organization, management should lead. Therefore if these leaders begin to “sow the seed” of process safety with the workforce, it would spread across the organization. But it could be spread easier, if the natural leaders are involved. Natural leaders in the improvement of process safety culture are the spearhead in this process. Because they are the ones that begin to prove that the hearth of process safety is based on doing "the right thing, the right way”. Nonetheless natural leaders need management commitment and process safety tools to improve the culture and safety of facilities. The process safety tools become critical in this process. It is popular belief that it is very important to create tools of process safety, but the tenet is in the use of the tool, rather than the tool itself. Remember “The tools are helpful, but if we don’t use then properly, they can fail to fulfill their function”. Another objective for natural leaders is to improve the risk analysis in order to understand the risks and the idea that “it could happen here…” It is important to understand that the past doesn’t guarantee the future. So, “do it right, and have a plan when it goes wrong”, as VISION 20/20 of CCPS propose.