Oil Refinery Case Study

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Incident at the SJV Refinery, Case Study Curtis Acree Columbia Southern University As an emergency response coordinator for a refinery it is vital to understand what hazards are associated with the products found in a crude oil refinery. Routine and non-routine maintenance will need to be done in order to maintain a working and operating oil refinery. This can create complicated situations or scenarios, because numerous contractors may be brought in for different repairs. This can lead to accidents in some cases because of the wide range of things going on in the refinery. Training and communication will be vital for a safe work environment with multiple entities working. Documentation of the training will also be crucial. According …show more content…

One area that should be looked at is the amount of contractors working at the refinery. With multiple contractors and their employees working I would have one central point of contact for all and work assignment areas should be set daily based on progress from previous work completed. All shift handover should require all leads with the main refinery focal person. This would let every agency know the progress of work and at that time adjustments could be made before the next shift started if necessary. This would also open the lines of communication so that everyone was aware of what was going on. I would also require that all training for the contractors be completed before starting work on the project. This would eliminate the possibility of one shift working longer and things being missed at handover because of any training completed prior to coming on shift. All handover would also be required to be filled into a daily log to the work status and at what stage the current job was in. This would be an extra measure to assist the JSA prior to work starting for the shift. . It also seems that the equipment should be brought up to date with pressure gauges, new seals, and piping components. This would have negated the release, the workers would have had a visual indication that the lines were still under pressure. Also because the ERT wasn’t able to isolate the gas feed lines this highlights a need for extra training. This training should include the key shutoff locations around the refinery. The training should also encompass the chemicals and their hazards that are associated with the refinery. As our text book states it, “Without the knowledge acquired from the study of hazardous materials, emergency responders are severely limited when they must select a course of action during the performance of duty”. (Meyer, 2014). A quick response checklist would also help eliminate any guessing for most situations. It

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