On 11 December 2005, there was a massive explosion at Buncefield Oil Storage Depot in Hemel Hempstead. Following the recommendations of the Major Incident Investigation Board, industry set up the Process Safety Leadership Group (PSLG), jointly with regulators and trades unions, to work through the lessons from the incident to prevent a recurrence. Because the lessons extended beyond the oil sector to other high hazard sites the industry stakeholders included the chemical sector as well as oil/fuels and tank storage.
Today, on the 4th anniversary of the Buncefield explosion, PSLG has published its final report with recommendations specifying minimum safety and environmental protection standards for all sites storing large volumes of gasoline, but with many generic lessons applicable across all major hazard sectors such as chemicals.
Commenting on the publication of the report Steve Elliott, Chemical Industries Association Chief Executive, said "the Buncefield explosion had a terrible impact on neighbouring businesses and jobs. As part of our duty to the communities who live and work alongside chemical sites the CIA has been part of the PSLG since its inception, and we welcome the new approach to industry-regulator working that PSLG has represented. We commend the final report as an excellent example of cooperative working across all onshore major hazard sectors."
"While the focus of the report is quite properly on the oils and fuels sector, and in particular bulk storage of gasoline as the main priority, we recognise there are many aspects of the recommendations that all sectors, including chemicals, can learn from. Indeed we have already been making good progress in raising both awareness and standards in many of these areas, including process safety leadership, as part of CIA's ongoing work plans."
"It is our task now to look at the fundamental differences between chemicals and the oils/fuels sector, and to find the optimum way for some of these generic lessons to be applied more broadly to the chemical sector. We therefore welcome the opportunity, which the report outlines, to discuss these issues with the regulator and come to agreement on the best way forward. We also support wholeheartedly the move to greater sharing and cooperation across sectors which HSE has challenged industry to deliver, and we are working actively with colleagues from other sectors on this."
The Process Safety Leadership Group final report on Safety and Environmental Standards for Fuel Storage Sites is published at:http://www.hse.gov.uk/comah/buncefield/response.htm
Contact Name: Fiona Ferguson