Buncefield Fire Case - Assignment

Running head: BUNCEFIELD FIRE CASE
BUNCEFIELD FIRE CASE
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Health issues that can arise after the blast at Buncefield Oil Terminal......................................2
Safety issues...........................................................................................................................4
Legislative frameworks applicable to health, safety and environment......................................5
Management principles in the energy industry..........................................................................7
Effect of the fire on downstream activities................................................................................9
Some facts about the Buncefield Oil terminal fire.....................................................................9
Safety management principles.................................................................................................10
Conclusions..............................................................................................................................12
Recommendations....................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
On 11th December, 2005 a storage tank which had unleaded motor fuel in it suddenly
exploded at Buncefield oil depot in UK. The blast was really bad and its outcome was the
outburst of a fire that destroyed 20 storage tanks which blazed for many days. This was a
major accident as the explosion of oil containing tanks has many long term as well as short
term health effects among the individuals who are exposed to the same (Waite, Keshishian
and Murray 2015). In order to attend the causalities two accident and emergency departments
nearest to the places were kept on standby. Surveillance system was deployed in that place to
find out the total number of persons injured and taken for medical care. This step was not
sufficient enough to analyze the impact that the fire had on the health of the people exposed
to the same. In this paper, the main points of discussion will be risk assessment. The way how
this fire could have been prevented if proper risk assessment could have been done will be
analyzed. The ways in which the hazards in the oil, gas and energy industry can be identified
by making use of risk assessment techniques will be analyzed as well. The fire incident that
occurred in the Oil Terminal will be analyzed by referring to existing frameworks related to
health, environment as well as safety legislations. The management strategies that could have
helped handle the situation in this particular sector will also be discussed. Other two parts
considered in this will be the downstream activities and downstream segment of petroleum
value chain.
Health issues that can arise after the blast at Buncefield Oil Terminal
There are various issues related to safety and hazards in oil and gas industry. In this
sector especially in some works such as well drilling and other such activities require the
workers to deal with as well as produce potential hazards. Flammable and toxic gas hazards
are best understood by the operators, safety personnel and the technicians present in oil and
petroleum industries (Creutzfeldt and Hodges 2016). In order to avoid these it is required that

3BUNCEFIELD FIRE CASE
the workers are given frequent training and their knowledge updated so that they learn to
handle things properly at the same time keeping a check on the instruments and other
equipments at the terminals. Maximum of the instances that take place suggest that personnel
who are new to the field and have least knowledge are deployed in hazardous regions. These
personnel thus are inefficient to handle situations and thus smaller things which could have
dealt with easily are ignored and result in situations as such in the Buncefield Oil Terminal.
Organic compounds burn in the environment of oxygen and the simplest form of organic
compounds are the hydrocarbons that form the key element of crude oil and gas (Tam and
Johnson 2016). When these hydrocarbons burn in the air of oxygen, carbon dioxide is
produced. High levels of carbon dioxide in the blood lead to serious consequences.
Hypercapnia is the physiological term that is used for the condition of excessive level of
carbon dioxide in the blood. When carbon dioxide is inhaled by an individual in large
amounts, it gets dissolved in the water in the lungs which later diffuses across alveolar-
capillary membrane entering the blood stream. Combination of carbon dioxide and water
forms carbonic acid that turns the blood acidic thus lowering its pH. When level of carbon
dioxide becomes excessive, acidosis occurs which results in lowered pH level of blood and
the pH level goes down as low as 7.35. In order to balance the excess levels of carbon dioxide
the human body makes use of specific mechanisms which in turn increase the blood pressure,
heart rate and bicarbonate production by the kidneys increases. The compensatory
mechanisms get overwhelmed when there is an excess of carbon dioxide which in turn results
in the depression of the central nervous system that includes the brain and spine gradually
leading them to their failure. Failure of the central nervous system leads to death and thus
considered one of the hazardous issues related to oil and gas tragedy. The burst of the motor
fuel tanker released a lot of carbon dioxide and thus had a drastic effect on the health of those
who inhaled the same (Baldwin and Black 2016). The inhalation of carbon dioxide can cause