Even more cause for concern at Shell's Safety Record

international | sci-tech | other press Sunday March 25, 2007 00:01 by Shell watcher

This interesting article from a hearing earlier thos week into safety at energy refineries makes scary reading for anyone who is being forced to live with one of these monsters on their doorstep.

It seems that in the first six weeks of this year, there were 43 reported serious incidents inthe United States, any one of which could have turned into a major disaster.

A former member of Shell's staff spoke about two incidents at the refinery where he worked (in Washington). One of these was a near miss but could easily have resulted in a huge fire cloud, the other caused six deaths among contractors.

It seems in a majority of cases, poor safety procedures are to blame.

Looking back on the 2005 fire I was reminded of this quotation from a Texas City Resident.
Mr. Herman Batist:

"Anytime you live by a plant like this, you've got to worry about this kind of situation. They don't happen very often, but when they do, the first thing you check is which way the wind is blowing"

Fire at refinery in 2005

NEWS FROM USW: USW CITES WORKPLACE SAFETY HAZARDS IN PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY

CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE HEARS TESTIMONY FROM INDUSTRY EXPERTS AND VICTIM

News From USW: A United Steelworkers (USW) health and safety specialist testified today before the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee that numerous incidents have occurred in the refining and petrochemical industries threatening industrial accidents similar to the March 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas City facility that killed 15 people and injured scores of others.

The committee held an oversight hearing on the Texas City explosion and the safety of U.S. oil refineries and chemical facilities following investigative reports that condemned lax safety standards cited at the facility by an independent review panel and more recently, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB).

Kim Nibarger, a USW staff workplace safety investigator, said the Texas City explosion “was but one of a handful of incidents that take the lives of workers in the petrochemical industry every month.” He said such deaths usually go unnoticed because they happen one or two at a time or affect contract workers who do not get connected with the proprietary employers.

Ninety-eight percent of the releases of hazardous chemicals, particularly hydrocarbons, do not find an ignition source, Nibarger said. “Any number of these releases - had they found an ignition source - could have resulted in consequences as tragic as Texas City,” he said.

A former oil worker at the Shell refinery in Anacortes, Wash., Nibarger told of two incidents at his facility: One was a release of propane and hydrocarbons that could have caused extensive damage had the vapor cloud ignited; the other was a situation with slightly different circumstances that resulted in six deaths.

He also told of a Feb. 16 fire at the Valero refinery in Sunray, Texas, and said the company has had a total of eight incidents since the beginning of 2007.

“This is a pattern repeated all too often,” he said. “In the U.S. from Jan. 1 through Feb. 16 of this year, there have been 43 incidents of pipeline leaks, chemical releases, plant upsets and fires.”

Nibarger said one of the USW’s goals is to work with the petrochemical and refining industries to make it safer for the workers and the communities that have these facilities. He said the union is in negotiations with BP to institute a ten-point program to address several items in the independent panel report led by former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III. The union also is working to establish its “Triangle of Prevention” program for joint accident/near miss investigations, and to develop safety and job training programs, procedure writing and a review process for BP’s U.S. represented sites. Adequate staffing and work hours are also being addressed.

Other witnesses at the hearing included Frank Bowman, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, and member of the BP U.S. Refineries Independent Review Panel; Carolyn Merritt, chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board; and Eva Rowe, whose parents were killed as outside contract employees in the Texas City explosion.

A copy of the USW written testimony submitted to the House committee can be accessed at: www.usw.org/.

The USW represents over 30,000 workers in the refining and petrochemical industries and is the largest industrial union in North America with over 850,000 members in the U.S., Canada, Virgin Islands and Aruba.