Health and Safety Analysis Assesment Report

2020
Health and Safety
Student’s Details

Health and Safety 1
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Health and Safety issues..................................................................................................................1
Technology failure.......................................................................................................................2
Poor Management Systems..........................................................................................................2
Failure of hazardous identification..............................................................................................3
Lack of Corporate Leadership and Safety Culture......................................................................3
Impact of Bruncefiled accident on downstream of oil Industry......................................................4
Loss of huge amount of Fuel.......................................................................................................4
Storage issue................................................................................................................................5
Impact on buyers..........................................................................................................................5
New Guidelines...........................................................................................................................5
Health and Safety Theories..............................................................................................................6
HAZOP........................................................................................................................................6
Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA).................................................................................6
Recommendations............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................10

Health and Safety 2
Introduction
Health and safety is a fundamental right of every human being. In the oil and gas industry, health
and safety is a vital and core subject. Despite focusing on health and safety, many accidents take
place in this industry because of the nature of the industry which is prone to accidents and
hazards. This industry includes heavy equipment and machinery, hazardous materials,
temperatures sensitivity and high-pressure equipment which are major causes of accidents in the
oil and gas industry.
The Buncefield fire accident in an oil depot is one of the largest fire accidents in the oil and gas
industry of the world. On the morning of 11 December 2005, a fire explosion had been brooked
out in the Hertfordshire oil terminal. The Hertfordshire oil storage terminal depot was the fifth
largest oil depot in the UK and has millions of gallons of fuel storage capacity. The major causes
had been found out behind the outrages fire explosion was the unleaded tank refilling process
and failure of technology. This fire accident had engulfed 20 oil tanks having petrol, diesel and
aviation fuel. This accident was a sheer failure of the risk management system of HOSL
Company (BBC news, 2010).
This discussion covers a critical analysis of the Buncefield Oil Terminal accident and evaluates
the health and safety issues faced in the Buncefield fire accident. This study also covers a brief
impact of this accident on the downstream of the oil industry of the country. In this study
comparisons of the health and safety measure in Buncefield have been includes. This study also
covers some recommendations for the Buncefield Oil Terminal Company to avoid such
accidents.

Health and Safety 3
Health and Safety issues
After this outrage fire disaster in Buncefield, the Health and Safety Commission of the UK had
appointed an independent investigation team to examine the causes and accountable for the
disaster. The investigation board found out that negligence of supervisors and site operating
managers, absence of ground staff during the refilling process, absence of training and
information, lack of guidelines for filling process and technology failure were the major factors
that resulted in this outrage disaster (OH& S, 2011).
Technology failure
The leading causes of this outraged disaster were technology failure in the company. The ware
two safety measures for tank filling operations. First, Automatic Tank Gauge (ATG) that
supposed to shut down in overflow the tank and another is Independent High- Level Switch
(IHLS) which supposed to close the supples automatically in an overflow situation. On the
morning of 11 December 2005, the filling process of tank number 912 was going on. The ATG
was failed to shut down, as it was not working properly for months and unfortunately another
safety measure namely Independent High- Level Switch had been stuck. This failure of both
safety measures led to the overflow of the fuel. The vapoured fuel cloud resulted in the blast in
tank 912, and then led a series of blasts in 20 tanks (Government UK, 2008).
Poor Management Systems
The poor management system of the HOSL Company also has been identified as another major
root cause of this disaster. The management system of the company was deficient to manage the
operational process. There were three pipelines for the filling process. It was difficult for the
operational managers to manage and handle all three pipe line at a time. The operational and site
manager were able to manage and understand only the first pipeline. There was a sheer lack of