UKPIA has teamed up with other industry groups to create a new safety forum in a bid to prevent future incidents like the Buncefield fire. According to UKPIA, the pan sector Process Safety Forum has been set up to provide a platform “whereby initiatives,
best practice, incident learnings and process safety strategy can be distilled and shared across all the industry sectors, with the aim of preventing major incidents”.
The other groups involved are Oil & Gas UK, a representative organisation for the UK offshore oil and gas industry, the Chemical Industries Association and the Nuclear Industry Association.
Chris Hunt. director general of UKPIA, said: “This is an important step forward for our industries. Incidents in the downstream oil industry in recent years have focussed attention on the need for greater sharing of knowledge and best practice across the high hazard sectors. Through the Buncefield Standards Task Group and its successor the Process Safety Leadership Group, the value of a wider pan industry dialogue has been demonstrated, to complement the existing safety forums within these sectors.”
Malcolm Webb, chief executive of Oil & Gas UK, said: “As an industry we are committed to making the UK offshore sector the safest place to work in the worldwide oil and gas industry; managing process safety plays a major part in achieving this. The upstream industry is already sharing best practices and learning from each other on a regular basis, especially in asset integrity and process safety.
“Our sharing website, workshops and network meetings are innovative tools which bring the whole industry together on the issue of safety. We are keen to share our experiences with other sectors and equally to learn from them.”
The inaugural meeting of the forum is scheduled to take place in early February, where the group will appoint a chair, approve aims and objectives and establish a work programme.
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