Benchmarking safety culture in major hazards industries in the Rotterdam area (The Netherlands)

Main findings: The safety culture scores of the (petro)chemical companies and the refineries were all good or acceptable. In contrast, in the bulk storage and chemical warehousing/logistics sectors several companies scored the acceptable minimum or even below. Strengths and weaknesses of process safety culture were assessed for each company individually, but are presented at sector level. This implies that there are opportunities for improvement both at company and sector level. Conclusion and discussion: The chemical industries and refineries had well-developed process safety cultures, although there were certainly opportunities for further improvement. The sectors at the end of the chain, the bulk storage and chemical warehousing and logistics do not have such well-developed process safety cultures; in a few cases their cultures were below what was regarded by the researchers as the minimum for major hazard industries. There are clearly limitations of the quick scan approach. Nevertheless, the methodology proved to be useful for benchmarking purposes between sectors and between companies. It led to useful feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the companies' safety culture. Introduction: Several incidents in the Netherlands in companies dealing with large quantities of chemicals got a lot of attention. It was broadly recognized that the safety cultures in these cases were relatively poorly developed. Against this background, the regional environmental inspectorate DCMR asked TNO in 2012 to assess the safety culture in fourteen major hazard companies in four related sectors. The two main objectives were (1) to gain insight into the process safety culture of 14 companies in four industrial sectors: refineries, (petro)chemical industry, bulk storage (tank parks), and chemical warehousing and logistics and (2) to allow benchmarking of process safety culture between those sectors and companies. It was the intention that this research also generated useful insights for the participating companies into the strengths and weaknesses of their process safety culture. Methods: The TNO Quick Scan Safety Culture was developed and conducted in 14 major hazard companies. The selection included four (petro) chemical plants, two refineries, four bulk storage and four chemical warehousing and logistics companies. The Quick Scan measures 14 dimensions of process safety culture. The applied method consisted of a limited review of relevant documentation, a two day site visit and a close out meeting. During the site visit two researchers made a walk through and conducted a series of interviews. In the close out meeting they presented the results to management, followed by discussion.