There is no use denying the fact that the modern world depends on the industry as it has never depended in its history. People are not able to survive without various goods which are produced by different plants and factories. That is why, great attention is given to the development of this very sector. People invent new ways to produce some goods which are more efficient than the previous ones. However, very often these ways are dangerous and can lead to unexpected results. With this in mind, another issue which should control the level of security develops along with the industry.
It is risk management, which main aim is to determine the main risk factors that could lead to the appearance of some emergencies and create conditions, under which these possibilities could be minimized. Taking into account great potential harm which could be made in case of any accident, it is possible to say that this very issue becomes especially important. Resting on these facts, it is possible to choose a certain industry and use the risk management approach in order to obtain the idea about the main peculiarities of its functioning and the ways in which the level of risk could be reduced. Taking into account modern tendencies, oil refinery industry is chosen for the analysis as it is one of the most topical and fast developing spheres nowadays, which, though, is rather dangerous and can create a great threat to the environment in case of emergency.
With this in mind, it is possible to outline the main goals and objectives of the given paper. First of all, the general characteristic of the industry should be provided in order to understand the main peculiarities of the process of production and be ready to analyze them. The main ideas obtained with the help of this analysis could influence the process of recognition of the main weaknesses of the chosen industry. Furthermore, this analysis is extremely vital in terms of risk management. There is no use denying the fact that this issue should take into account all weaknesses of the industry, including external and internal factors and make assumptions resting on the information obtained from this very analysis. Thus, it is possible to say that another goal of the given work is to understand the main aspects of functioning of the issue of risk management.
Having stated in the first part of the paper the fact that this tool is extremely vital now, it is possible to come to the attempts to analyze it and apply to the oil refinery industry. Thus, another part of the given paper is devoted to the literature review with the help of which the information connected with the given sphere could be obtained and the answers to some questions found. The literature review is based only on credible sources which provide trustworthy information. Besides, the above mentioned steps should help to obtain clear vision of the problem of risk assessment in oil refinery industry and suggest certain steps which could help to reduce the level of risk. Moreover, some possible aftermath of accidents in the given industry should also be outlined in order to realize the great importance of this problem.
Thus, it should be said that according to Siljeholm (1997) oil refinery industry is rather dangerous sphere of human activity which can lead to some serious and unexpected aftermath. The author outlines several factors which influence the appearance of some risks. The first factor is the hazardous character of organic contaminants which are the result of an oil refinery (Siljeholm, 1997). These contaminants could make serious harm to the environment, especially in case of their unexpected insertion to soil or subsoil waters. That is why, the author outlines the necessity of deep analysis of risks connected with the given industry. However, he is not the only researcher who underlines hazardous and environmentally unfriendly character of the oil refinery. Bhattacharyya & Shekdar (2003) in their research paper state the fact that phenols and heavy metals, that remain after the process of refinery of crude oil, are very dangerous pollutants, which could make the state of environment significantly worse.
The authors cogitate about the fact that people, who work in the given sphere, are also endangered by these reagents and the question of safety at work appears. Oil sludge, which is generated in the process of refinery, is very hazardous and has a pernicious effect on the health of people and state of the environment (Bhattacharyya & Shekdar, 2003). Under these conditions, the issue of risk management is extremely vital as not only the environment, though, the life of people could also be ruined. That is why, the tools to control the state of security and find some threats are suggested by the authors of the work. Moreover, it is also obvious, that in the age of digital revolution, some engineering solutions should also be applied to the oil refinery industry. Da Silva, Alves and de Franca (2012) in their work suggest the review of technological solutions which could be used to control the state of the plant, or factory, which refines crude oil. Being sure that “the activities of the oil industry have several impacts on the environment due to the large amounts of oily wastes that are generated” (Da Silva, Alves and de Franca, 2012, p. 1016), the authors underline the fact that the choice of the approach towards the risk management depends on physical and chemical peculiarities of the processes which are performed.
Thus, they tend to create some universal technology which could be applied under various conditions and which could monitor the state of the whole process. Moreover, this very technology could be taken as a very efficient risk management tool as it should take into account and analyze all potential risk factors, such as thr escape of wastes, danger of fire, or pernicious influence on the health of workers (Da Silva, Alves and de Franca, 2012, p. 1016). The authors tend to prove the idea that the implementation of technologies in the process of risk management could help to reduce the number of accidents significantly. The first and the most important advantage of technologies is the fact that they could help to exclude the human factor from the process of refinery and risk management. Great significance of the human factor is proved by MacKenzie, Holmstrom and Kaszniak (2007) in their paper, in which they analyze the accident at BP Texas City refinery which happened on March 23, 2005. Taken this case as the basis for their investigation, researchers tend to prove the idea that some actions of unit operators could be taken as rather ambivalent and should be given more attention because of their role in the accident (MacKenzie, Holmstrom and Kaszniak, 2007).
In the course of their investigation the authors prove the fact that the human factor had a pernicious influence on the whole situation and led to the disastrous results. With this in mind, it is possible to say that there is the idea that the exclusion of the human factor can lead to the significant improvement of security in the sphere. Shiff (2012), performing a spatial risk analysis of oil refineries in the USA, also includes the human factor in the list of main causes of accidents. He uses statistics to prove his idea and, moreover, the author also shows the main methods used by him in the process of analysis. Underlining the fact that risk analysis plays an important role in managing the whole industry and in its development, the researcher provides reliable information which shows that the plants and factories, which devoted great attention to the issue of risk management, had much better history of accidents. Moreover, Shiff suggests his own vision of the remedies which could be used to control the state of affairs in the industry. Technology is one of the main ways to get rid of the majority of risk factors according to Shiff (2012).
Thus, it is possible to say that implementation of new hardware should be followed by the development of new software which, in its turn, should be able to improve the efficiency of Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA). QRA is the methodology which aims at determining all risks that appear in the process of production and refining of crude oil. Implementation of a new software could help to guarantee that “all possible accident scenarios are taken account of so that potential sources of high risk are not omitted from the overall risk picture” (Improving Refinery Safety using Quantitative Risk Assessment and the Role of Software, n.d., p. 2), which is extremely vital for the efficient functioning of QRA and the whole organization. The thing is that large quantities of data, which is used by QRA in order to find the most problematic spheres and create various solutions, could be processed by a computer much faster than by any other mean. With this in mind, it is possible to say, that the future of QRA and the whole issue of risk management is closely connected with the specialized software which could replace the old practices and exclude the human factor from the list of main risks. Oil refinery industry, being one of the most important industries nowadays, should be modernized according to this pattern, as its wastes and accidents, which appear almost every year, damage environment greatly and have a pernicious influence on the health of people.
Taking into account the above mentioned information, it is possible to say that QRA could be taken as one of the main tools which should be used to determine risk factors and get rid of even theoretical threat. Using the case study connected with the Texas City Refinery accident (Saleh, Haga, Favaro, & Bakolas, 2014) as the background for the research, it is possible to outline several peculiarities connected with the methodology and the main ways of risk analysis. First of all, it should be said that the qualitative methods could be applied here to determine the level of safety peculiar to the given object. In the given case study “the absence of observability or ability to diagnose hazardous states in the operation of the refinery” is mentioned as one of the causes of this accident (Saleh et al., 2014, p. 121). That is why, it is possible to suggest that implementation and usage of the main principles of QRA and qualitative risk analysis of the most important and problematic spheres could have helped to prevent the accident. Creation of risk rating scales, which demonstrate the most dangerous aspects of the factory’s functioning and constant evaluation of the staff working there can be taken as the main methods of risk assessment which should be applied under these very conditions. That is why, analysis of the case study could be accomplished in accordance with these assumptions.
With this in mind, having outlined the main ideas and facts connected with the issue of risk assessment and its peculiarities in the oil refinery industry, it is possible to make a certain conclusion. First of all, it should be said that the chosen industry is potentially very risky and the threat of contamination of the environment in case of emergency is extremely high. That is why, it is vital to be able to determine the main risks and be able to create procedures which could decrease the level of threat. Under these conditions, the issue of QRA obtains great significance, however, it should also be reconsidered in order to be able to use the software which could process various aspects of security at the same time. There are several main threats which are the escape of wastes, danger of fire, pernicious influence on the health of workers or risk of explosion and each of them could have an irreversible effect on the environment. Resting on these facts, it is possible to recommend the further investigation of the chosen sphere in order to find the best possible risk assessment approach.
References
Bhattacharyya, J., & Shekdar, A. (2003). Treatment and disposal of refinery sludges: Indian scenario. Waste Management and research, 2(3), 249-261. Web.
Da Silva, L., Alves, F., & de Franca, F. (2012). A review of the technological solutions for the treatment of oily sludges from petroleum refineries.Waste Management and research, 30(10), 1016-1030. Web.
Improving Refinery Safety using Quantitative Risk Assessment and the Role of Software. (n.d.). Web.
MacKenzie, C., Holmstrom, D., & Kaszniak, M. (2007). Human Factors Analysis of the BP Texas City Refinery Explosion.Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 51(20), 1444-1448. Web.
Saleh, J., Haga, R., Favaro, F., & Bakolas, E. (2014). Texas City refinery accident: Case study in breakdown of defense-in-depth and violation of the safety–diagnosability principle in design. Engineering Failure Analysis, 36. 121-133. Web.
Schiff, Z. (2012). A spatial risk analysis of oil refineries in the United States. Web.
Siljeholm, J. (1997). A Hazard Ranking of Organic Contaminants in Refinery Effluents. Toxicology and industrial health, 13(4), 527-551. Web.