Monthly Reflections May 2025
by Steve Norton, IOGP Health, Safety, Security & Wells Director
Monthly Reflections May 2025
Dear Colleagues,
Our ambition in the IOGP Safety Committee is to eliminate fatalities and catastrophic process safety events. The industry data shows us that although we are making progress, we still have a long way to go. Unfortunately, leaks, fires, and explosions are occurring and, in the most tragic cases, result in fatalities.
It is with this backdrop that the IOGP Process Safety Subcommittee met for one of their two annual face-to-face meetings in Dhahran, hosted by Saudi Aramco. Thank you to Hussain Alabduljabbar and team for the excellent hosting and the first-class facilities ensured a smooth meeting for the in-person and virtual attendees.
The Process Safety Subcommittee is a passionate and committed group striving to improve performance and achieve the ambition of eliminating catastrophic events. They are working on a number of initiatives to achieve this goal, and the meeting was a chance to check progress and decide on future actions. The following ongoing initiatives were discussed…
• 2024 Process Safety Event data and insights
• Process Safety Fundamentals (IOGP Report 638) implementation guidance
• Guidelines and tools for defining Process Safety High Potential Events
• Development of the Process Safety in Design Principles
• Revision and updating of the Standardisation of Barrier Definitions (IOGP Report 544)
• Collaboration to co-develop Process Safety Leading Indicators
• Development of Process Safety for Leaders Guidelines
• King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals joined the meeting to share their Process Safety Master Program
The Process Safety Event data shows these are critical items that will make a difference and help the industry to continuously improve and achieve its ambition. This was Felipe Carvalho’s first meeting as Chair of the Subcommittee and he was excellently supported by Colin Winsor and Margarita Malaspina as co-Chairs. Thank you to Felipe, Colin and Margarita for their leadership and keeping the team on track with their actions.
The Meeting finished with a chance to engage with Saudi Aramco Process Safety professionals. Over 200 joined in the room and virtually and after presentations on Process Safety Recommended Practice (IOGP Report 456), Process Safety data insights and Process Safety Fundamentals (IOGP Report 438) there followed an engaging discussion. The questions to the IOGP team had a particular focus on the Process Safety Fundamentals.
Overall, an excellent and valuable week working on actions to improve performance in this critical risk area.
Kind regards,
Steve
