Tuesday 13 January 2009

Process Safety Forum formed to encourage cross-industry best practice sharing and learning

UKPIA⁽¹⁾ and Oil & Gas UK⁽²⁾ announce that in conjunction with the Chemical Industries Association and Nuclear Industry Association, a pan sector Process Safety Forum has been formed.

The 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.

Commenting on the establishment of the Forum, Chris Hunt Director General of UKPIA commented: "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⁽³⁾, 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 world-wide 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 to appoint a chair, approve aims and objectives and establish a work programme.

Enquiries:       

UKPIA Nick Vandervell, 020 7269704 or Chris Hunt, 020 72697601

Oil & Gas UK Britta Hallbauer 01224 577331