Explosion and Fire at Silver Eagle Refinery-CSB deploys investigative team

Washington DC, November 4, 2009 – A six-member team from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is deploying to the scene of today’s explosion and fire at the Silver Eagle Refinery in Woods Cross, Utah. According to local officials, the explosion in the diesel hydrotreater unit caused damage to homes in the surrounding area and … Read more

Indian Oil fire in Jaipur continues to burn-faulty operation blamed

Nov 1, 2009- Even after several days have passed, the fire that started in an Indianoil storage tank farm at Jaipur, India continues to burn with intermittent explosions also being reported. After many hours of futile efforts of firefighting, the authorities say that they will allow the fire to burn itself out. Several fatalities have … Read more

Australian Oil & Chemical Spill highlights issues of transportation safety

The Australian state of Queensland declared parts of the Sunshine Coast, Moreton Island and Bribie Island disaster zones after a container ship belonging to the Swire Group leaked fuel during a storm. The oil spill has contaminated about 37 miles of pristine beaches and mangroves, reports say. Queensland’s Deputy Premier Paul Lucas said today the … Read more

Designing Safety Instrumented Systems?- Five things to watch out for

Modern chemical and hydrocarbon processing plants, oil & gas production facilities, power plants and other similar process plants all have some instrumented systems that ensure functional safety. These are known as Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS for short). This post is about SIS and how you can avoid certain pitfalls while designing them. To those of … Read more