PROCESS SAFETY INITIATIVES
The basic building block of Motiva’s Port Arthur Refinery (PAR) Sustainable Development (SD) Strategy is the effort to continue to enhance the plant’s operational excellence.
A major impetus of continuous improvement in operational performance is PAR’s commitment to aggressively implement the Company-wide work processes known as the Process Safety Initiative (PSI). The focus of the PSI is to produce a step change improvement in the key business practices that affect process safety performance. The key work processes include:
Ensure Safe Production
Ensure Safe Production is performance by proactively monitoring defined variables. These variables can be instrumented tags or non-instrumented tags. This work process provides specified actions for dealing with target deviations and limit exceedances such that reactive overload is minimized. The work process also provides a single repository of process variable information with clearly defined, conflict-free limits and targets, consequences of deviations from the limit, and specific operator responses to return the out-of-limit condition to the desired state.
Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM)
This is a structured, risk-based analysis of the systems that make up a refinery. The results of this analysis are a maintenance and surveillance strategy that economically maintains the reliability and integrity of the system being analyzed. The emphasis of RCM is maintaining the function of the system, and not necessarily every piece of equipment in the system. One of the benefits of RCM is the movement of maintenance away from being reactive (fixing what breaks) to being proactive (preventing equipment from breaking) at the same or reduced costs.
Pressure Equipment Integrity (PEI)
This process utilizes the principle of Shared Stewardship of Assets, that is a vision whereby all site functional groups share ownership for maintaining the integrity of pressure equipment. The work process utilizes a database to support scheduling of equipment inspections and to analyze data developed from inspections. Other tools, such as Corrosion Control Documents, and Risk-based inspection techniques are also used to provide a complete picture of pressure equipment integrity to avoid unexpected degradation of process equipment.
Protective Instrumentation (PI)
This work process defines the management and work practices that are needed to ensure protective instrument systems are properly designed, installed and maintained to protect employees, neighbors, and company assets. The basic aspects of the PI process include: instrument system classification, accountability for operations, design, and maintenance of systems, strict protocols for bypassing of instruments, testing regimes, and documentation requirements.
Operating Procedures
At PAR, our operating procedures are primarily the Unit Training Modules. These Modules explain how our equipment works and give detailed instructions on how to safely operate the processing units. The Modules were developed by our own hourly operators and are widely admired as excellent examples of how to write procedures. The operators also maintain the Modules and incorporate changes into the Modules as necessary.
Operator Training
A knowledgeable, skilled workforce is crucial to the safe and efficient operation of our refinery. Operator training plays a key role in assuring that each employee has the skills necessary to reach optimum competency. The training standards are designed to serve as the foundation for creating and maintaining successful Operator training programs. The training standards provide a template for a structured training process throughout the Company.
Investigations
The PSI Investigations Work Process establishes a system that 1) identifies root causes of incidents, 2) identifies and evaluates preventive measures that act to reduce potential incidents, and 3) provides methods for effective follow-up to complete action items resulting from investigations. The Investigations Work Process delineates responsibilities for securing incident scenes, formation of investigation teams, methodologies for conducting investigations, communicating results, and assignment of corrective actions. Investigation results are entered into a database and reviewed to determine patterns, and if more widespread actions need to be taken among all company refineries.
Audits and Assessments
This work process establishes uniform audit protocols, so that audits and assessments of systems are comparable across the company. This process provides for flexibility, but also consistency, in evaluating programs and processes across locations.
Process Hazards Analysis (PHA)
This process provides a consistent methodology for conducting hazards analyses at refineries. The tools established allow lessons to be learned between locations, provide for a method of measuring the work process, and consistent application of evaluation criteria for each covered process.
Management of Change
This work process establishes a consistent methodology for efficiently managing changes and complying with regulations. The intention is to eliminate incidents and injuries within our refinery and the surrounding community caused by poorly managed changes in process equipment.
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