International expert speaks at seminar on process safety management

Fire and explosions are not uncommon in petroleum and petrochemical industry.

The seminar was a solemn tribute to the third anniversary of death of fifteen employees at Texas City refinery in Houston, Texas.

Internationally renowned health, safety and environment expert Ujwal Ritwik was the speaker of the evening.

It also featured a one-hour long documentary released by Chemical Hazard Investigation Board of US Federal government.

The seminar, held on 2nd April, was organized by American Society of safety Engineers Kuwait Chapter at Hilton Resort hotel in Kuwait.

An enraptured, record-breaking gathering of over 160 safety, health and environmental professionals from Kuwait and some from outside Kuwait listened to Mr. Ritwik with bated breath. "I never thought a complex topic like process safety management could be communicated such simply" Hussein Bin Ali, an environmental engineer from a local company said.

Jack Lengur another risk engineering expert visiting from Bahrain expressed great admiration "Rarely in my career I have attended such an interesting technical seminar. We did not realize when the speaker exceeded the allocated time we were clamoring for more.

Process safety is a complex issue but Mr. Ritwik made it easy to understand that my colleague attending the seminar with me who is a professional marine biologist too was able to understand the major issues. You have a wealth of talent in Kuwait, I hope to invite him to Bahrain soon".

The seminar provided bird's eye view of process safety management in high hazard chemical facilities such as petrochemicals, oil and gas and petroleum transport industry.

Apart from introducing the subject, the talk informed on the latest advances such as risk based process safety and process safety performance measures. Mr. Ritwik said, "I fondly call these Third Generation PSM. In very near future world over, even in the Middle East companies will be using these as standard".

With a long list of qualifications, Mr. Ujwal Ritwik has over 30 years of experience in high hazard industries in environment, safety, occupational health, training, operations, technical and support services departments.

Internationally renowned speaker and organ¬izer par excellence, he has been instrumental in changing the face of profes¬sion in the region.

Currently he is the Senior Specialist SHE, Kuwait National Petroleum Co. and is also the President of 5th International HSE Conference that ASSE Kuwait is organizing in March 2009.

What is Process Safety?

Explaining the topic Mr. Ritwik informed that in the context of high hazard chemical facility operations, "process safety" refers to the prevention and mitigation of unintentional releases of potentially dangerous materials or energy from processes.

Process safety management (PSM) involves a particular type of risk management—identifying and controlling the hazards arising from refining processes, such as the prevention of leaks, spills, equip¬ment malfunctions, over-pressures, excessive temperatures, corrosion, metal fatigue, and other similar conditions.

Process safety programs focus on, among other things, the design and engineering of facilities; haz¬ard assessments; management of change; inspection, testing, and maintenance of equipment; effec¬tive alarms; effective process control; procedures; training of personnel; and human factors.

Process safety management is critical because process accidents can have catastrophic effects and result in multiple fatalities and substantial economic, property, and environmental damage.

Process hazards at a refinery can give rise to accidents that affect both workers inside the refinery and mem¬bers of the public who reside nearby.

The history of Chemical industry, and other high hazard industries, is replete with catastrophic incidents such as those at Bhopal and Chernobyl where the general public had to pay heavy price for being close to the factory. We must learn from such experiences, these are free lessons but extremely valuable.

Mr. Ritwik also spoke about the effort being made by him and ASSE to increase awareness on process safety among the industry and public. "We are in discussion with a collaboration with Centre for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) an arm of American Institute of Chemical Engineers to have a Middle East centre of excellence on Process Safety. CCPS is the leading body in the world providing guidelines and support".