INERCO CARRIES OUT A HUMAN HAZOP ANALYSIS FOR AN INDUSTRIAL INSTALLATION IN PORTUGAL

INERCO has carried out a risk analysis using the Human HAZOP methodology for a Liquified Gas (LPG) Storage Park located in Porto (Portugal). The Human HAZOP is based primarily on the identification of critical interventions or tasks in which a human error would have the potential of causing catastrophic damage to the facilities or serious work accidents. These interventions concerned routine operation tasks as well as maintenance actions or emergency situations.

For each of these critical tasks the possible deviations –human errors– were identified, evaluating their consequences and safeguards, determining –where applicable–, the corrective measures that should be implemented. When proposing measures, not only organisational but also technical measures were evaluated.

The analysis carried out by INERCO technicians was supplemented by a study on the workloads of the control posts of the organisation, in which the normal situation as well as the contingency of work leave were evaluated. The results, conclusions and recommendations have been delivered to the client for their implementation in the near future.

INERCO’s experience in Human HAZOP

This Human HAZOP study carried out by INERCO in Portugal adds to other similar ones carried out in on shore exploration tasks and at fuel service stations, which deal with reducing the probability of accidents happening that originate in the Human Factor, reviewing the implemented measures in the whole organisation using a systematic approach.

These analyses are supplemented by the works that INERCO carries out in the sphere of Behaviour-Based Safety, using a more individual approach, like the one carried out in Mexico for a train carriage manufacturing industry, which was extended to 3,000 workers in the company and translated to a decrease in workplace accidents of 50 per cent.