Safe Operation in Chemical Plants with Stop Work Authority

摘要

Most companies say that their operators have (are fully empowered with) Stop Work Authority (SWA). It is generally easy to apply it in occupational health and safety (OH&S) area. When it comes to process safety, SWA is not well understood. In this paper we would review the current state of SWA as practiced in various major companies and would share typical guidelines for plant operation teams to act in safe shutdown of the plant to minimise safety and reliability issues such as delays in bringing down the plant as needed. Events, however, do emerge where prior foreseeability was not easily forthcoming or may have been inadvertently missed in the early hazard evaluations. During such times operator intervention is absolutely required and the expectation is that the operator will act appropriately, including the act of stopping production or shutting the plant down, in the interest of people and plant safety. Examples may include BFW excursions, leaking gas lines, loss of containment, vibrations of machines etc., where operators could have been given clear instructions (or policy/decision guidelines) to stop production or to shut down the plant. We would discuss some recent accidents where Stop Work Authority could have been applied. We will demonstrate the usefulness of such simple guidelines for risk judgement and corresponding prudent action by the operator in moments of perceived operational crisis.