Kuwait National Petroleum Company is taking SHE management to new heights, establishing as part of its Policy Statement a management programme covering all aspects of its operation. DNV Consulting is actively co-operating in the programme’s development and implementation.
Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) operates a major oil and gas processing complex near Kuwait City. This consists of three refineries, one gas processing plant and a local marketing department which distributes and markets petroleum products to the general public. The three refineries (Shuaiba, Mina Abdullah and Mina Al-Ahmadi) together process some 1 million barrels of crude oil each day.
Says Sami Al-Rushaid, executive assistant managing director of KNPC, Our company specialises in crude oil refining and gas liquefaction operations. One of our main goals is to achieve full integration among the three refineries, and operate them as one efficient refining complex in order to achieve a high level of flexibility in meeting the requirements of the world market.
Al-Rushaid believes that the safety management programme is key to the success of KNPC. He explains, Maintaining Safety, Health and the Environment is a core value for KNPC. Our overall aim is to run a successful business with no accidents, no injuries, and no harm to the environment. This is a firm commitment of management, and the responsibility of all staff and contractors on our sites.
According to Al-Rushaid, KNPC recently experienced a series of incidents resulting in both fatalities and significant loss of production. Although we have always paid special attention to safety and security at our plants and installations, we experienced two serious incidents in June 2000. The first was a leak of H2S gas that led to two fatalities during the inspection of the Isomax reactor unit at the Shuaiba refinery. Shortly after, we suffered a major blast at the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, bringing its units to a complete shutdown and inflicting heavy damage.
DNV assessment study
Subsequent to these incidents, says Al-Rushaid, KNPC management took immediatesteps to analyse the weaknesses in its safetymanagement system, with the aim of effecting positive and long-lasting improvements.
As part of its SHE management system (K-SMS) development, KNPC called in Det Norske Veritas to conduct an assessment study of its facilities, systems and procedures. The key elements of the K-SMS include:
" Leadership, commitment and accountability
" Management system and audit
" Training, competence and behaviour
" Emergency preparedness
" Incident investigation and reporting
" Risk assessment and management of change
Says Al-Rushaid, A major emphasis of the programme must be on people and their safety attitudes, as the majority of accidents can be shown to be caused by human failure. Therefore training is a key element of this programme, and the aim will be to train everyone in the system from the Chairman down to the youngest recruit. Everyonemust appreciate how the system works and their rolein making it happen.
The reason that this approach delivers long-term safety improvements is the better understanding
that comes from the risk reviews which identify causes of accidents and whether safeguards are in place. These may be people, procedure or hardware based and must be adequate to prevent incidents. The understanding of every employee of their role in those safeguards is crucial. Over time, the continual improvement element of the management system will drive the residual risk lower and lower as weaknesses in operation and safeguarding are identified and addressed.
Mohamed Ibrahim, head of K-SMS, adds: DNV has used benchmark industry approaches for each of the 14 elements and these have been presented to our Element Champions and their teams along with the findings from the baseline assessment. DNV has then facilitated workshop sessions with each team to come up with a practical programme to meet the expectations of senior management.
DNV is taking these results and developing a set of suitable performance indicators, in conjunction with the Element Champions. DNV has also developed a series of audit-based measurement questions that will support each element. Taken together, these element questions will become the KNPC audit measurement tool.
100 per cent compliance
A Higher Safety Committee has been established to provide safety management leadership and keep track of progress, and to identify areas that need attention. Through this process, KNPC aims to achieve continuous all-round improvement.
Concludes Sami Al-Rushaid, Over the past 25 years, the process industry worldwide has experienced many disasters and much has been learned from those accidents. It is an established fact that safe operations come from well-structured and well thought-out safety management systems that address all aspects of the process facility and start from a thorough understanding of the process hazards. Consequently, we strive to implement the best programmes available and push for 100 per cent compliance with all our Health, Safety and Environment standards and policies. I am confident that with the co-operation of DNV, we will achieve this goal.