Abstract
Events such as the Texas City and Buncefield explosions and fires as well as the more recent incidents in the Gulf of Mexico have indicated how important it is for the board of a company to have a sound understanding of Process Safety and of the risks faced by the company. The ‘Baker Panel’, which was established to review BP’s refinery operations in the USA, made a number of recommendations relating to the board including one which stated that ‘BP should develop and implement a system to ensure that its executive management … possess an appropriate level of process safety knowledge and expertise.” Clearly this requirement is not restricted to BP. More recently the OECD Working Party on Chemical Accidents has issued guidance aimed at increasing board understanding of process safety.
The paper will describe the application of a programme developed by the Institution of Chemical Engineers to: developing the board’s understanding of the principles of process safety management, of human factors and how safety culture affects performance, ensuring board awareness of the process safety hazards of the business and of the board’s role in managing these hazards, methods used to inform the board of the status of process safety across the company, exploring how the board’s commitment to process safety is understood throughout the company and by the contractors employed in its operations. The paper will draw on the authors’ experience in applying the programme to a range of companies in the nuclear, energy and chemical sectors.
