Not doing a gas test before welding is criminal negligence

I wonder why many plant owners & managers cannot do some simple things to prevent accidents and save innocent workers’ lives?  Shockingly, in many of the recent accidents, that have been reported as “welding accidents”, the root cause is not doing a “gas test” before starting the job.  As all of you, who are familiar with the oil & gas, petrochemical and related industries know, it is essential to do a “gas test” (in other words, use a gas monitor to check the presence of explosive or flammable gases) before allowing “hot work” in any area in the plant.  Apparently, this simple fact is not known or plainly ignored by many owners/operators of such facilities.

The recently released US Chemical Safety Board investigation into the Jackson, Mississippi oilfield accident,  clearly indicates that the  owner company failed to do this basic test, before allowing workers to do the welding work. The result was a very predictable explosion, with an unfortunate fatality too.  This,  in a developed country, supposedly industrially advanced, like the US of A; we’re not talking about some Timbuctoo in some remote corner of the world.

The latest such incident is an oilfield explosion in Ohio.  Just about three weeks ago there was another similar accident in Honolulu. The US Chemical Safety board has sent a team to the site for an investigation into the Ohio explosion ( the Honolulu investigation is still on) and we will know only later whether this too, was the result of not conducting a “flammable gas test” at the site before allowing such work to start.

I wonder whether the managements are incompetent or plain negligent or ignorant about the hazards of allowing hot work, in areas known to have flammable vapors and gases.  This is because explosive gas monitors are not at all expensive , easily available everywhere and are also pretty easy to operate.  Training is available in many forms, including an excellent e-learning course on Gas Monitors, as well as from other sources such as vendors.

It is time that the authorities made it loud and clear to all owner/operators that there will be zero tolerance for such negligent acts. I understand that the US Chemical Safety Board can only make recommendations, not issue penalties, so this has to be done by some other federal agency.

As always your comments on this issue are welcome!

Cost of NOT preventing corrosion in a gas pipeline – $ 4 billion!

On June 3, 2008, there was a large explosion in a natural gas processing station on Varanus island near Western Australia. The investigation report that was released last week, points to poor maintenance as being the leading cause of the accident. It seems that the company that maintained the pipeline and associated infrastructure neglected maintenance for over 15 years, until the day , the pipes became so thin due to corrosion that the gas leaked and it all went off with a bang!

The report talks about the main causes of the blast as “ineffective anti-corrosion coating of a gas pipeline due to damage or disbondment of the pipeline”, “ineffective cathodic protection of the wet-dry transition zone of the beach crossing section of the pipeline,” and “ineffective inspection and monitoring by Apache.” (Apache Energy is the company that owns the installation).

Fortunately no fatalities were reported, but the resulting disruptions may have caused losses of up to $ 4 billion and there is a question mark on who is liable. Gas supplies to the entire Western Australian region were cut back by a third, resulting in shutdowns and outages.

If this is the callous way in which managements treat their assets in good times, ( the energy industry is having a pretty good time now), I wonder what will become of good maintenance and safety standards during tough economic times that are seen in the days ahead?

This is what happens when you let the bean counters and corporate finance guys run amok and ruin perfectly good manufacturing/processing companies. I am sure all of you- manufacturing, process and safety professionals who have experienced this will agree with me, as most of us have gone through similar experiences in the past few years.

The mantra of cost-cutting at any cost, has proved to be a BIG failure and is downright reckless and irresponsible behavior towards everybody-ordinary shareholders (NOT the ones who write ESOP checks for themselves) , frontline employees (NOT the fancy headquarters staff but those on the frontline who run the operations), the larger business community , the surrounding environment and local communities.  We have all seen the bean counters’ breathtaking, virtuoso performance on Wall Street by now, it is up to the engineers and technical types (who I suppose have far more IQ and common sense than their glamorous “corporate finance” types of guys) to take back control of companies and run things in a saner (and safer way).

Amen!

Here’s a video of the original incident (from Live Leak)