Four Major Gaps that are Preventing Most Companies Worldwide from Achieving Excellent Process Safety Performance

Process safety requires implementing many management systems and engineering practices effectively. Most companies believe they have done just that, and yet major accidents continue to occur. Why is that? What is missing? This paper looks at the statistics of major accidents, combined with results from audits and assessment from more than 50 chemical, petrochemical, oil/gas, and related processing companies world-wide, including most GCC companies. The paper illustrates the four major gaps that are common to the companies/sites that keep having major accidents, compared to those companies/sites that do not have such accidents:

• Accurate and clear operating and maintenance work instructions (procedures)
• PHA of all modes of operation, especially startup, shutdown, and online maintenance modes
• Getting Near Misses reported and investigated
• Addressing human factors missing from most management systems

The paper points to guidance for closing each of these gaps.