The key current issue in SHE is one that has been persistent for over 20 years – reducing the number of major accident events. Highly publicized major accidents both onshore and offshore demonstrate that industry successes in improving occupational safety have not been mirrored in major accident performance. Most of these accidents did not result primarily from deficient design, rather it was inadequate operational safety not sufficiently addressing specific threats inherent in the operation. DNV applies the latest techniques to ensure that facilities are aware of all key operational and mechanical integrity requirements and that risks are rigorously controlled.

Purpose

Operational safety is the collection of safety services that supports operational managers achieve and maintain the high levels of safety and mechanical integrity required by regulation and by their own safety and risk processes.

Benefits

Major accidents have been very hard to reduce, compared to occupational safety. Signals from the North Sea show that a barrier approach, combined with safety management systems and culture programs will be successful if they are applied fully and in combination with relibaility/integrity services. DNV has in-depth knowledge and experience within all these areas, and we are able to combine the knowledge in an integrated way.

Our approach

DNV can develop an integrated program combining SHE risk management, asset integrity, reliability services and global best practices to achieve major improvements in process safety. DNV’s novel process will be equally applicable for customers with established safety management systems, as those with less sophisticated solutions.

We recommend that companies:

• Increase their top management’s commitment to, and awareness and leadership of, process safety, to match that for personnel safety
• Increase focus on process safety issues through tools such as risk assessment and risk registers
• Identify key controls and control accountability
• Put in place evergreen processes to control both hardware and procedures
• Develop suitable leading and lagging process safety metrics that are easily understood and link to industry initiatives to standardize such measures
• Build a strong safety culture to complement management commitment and technical safety programs
• Initiate a fuller use of accident investigation, to verify a control’s effectiveness
• Establish priorities of concrete actions, management follow-up and close-out tracking systems.

Our services are underpinned by a Risk Information Centre. The Centre collates current data and information on risk, accidents and trends. The information is sorted and packaged to ensure that our engineers and consultants have the latest available information when working on assignments for our key customers.