How Strong are your Barriers?
What can be learned from inspections of loss of containment audit and assurance systems in the UK...
Features
Witness to the Beirut blast
Safety expert Wassim Naddi on Lebanon’s disregard for safety and the need for change.
Deepwater Horizon: As it Happened
Geoff Maitland looks back on the Gulf of Mexico oilspill, ten years ago this month
Cross-industry Learning from High Hazard Sectors
How we choose to learn can determine whether we will repeat similar situations, says Gabor Posta
Spontaneous Combustion of Tortilla Chip Waste: an Unknown Known?
A analysis of a fire caused by spontaneous combustion of food waste at a factory in Texas.
Fighting the Fight
Cyber attacks on industrial control systems are increasing. What can you do?
The ‘Watermelon’ Effect: Does a green dashboard mean a healthy facility?
Introducing the ‘watermelon’ effect, where process safety performance metrics appear ‘green’ sugg...
News
Fire at Leamington Spa plastics facility
A FIRE and subsequent explosions occurred at a plastics facility in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire,...
Five dead and two missing after fire on Pemex offshore oil platform
A FIRE at a Pemex offshore oil platform has resulted in the deaths of five workers, with two stil...
Explosion at South African power plant
AN explosion at a power station in South Africa has caused extensive damage to the facility’s gen...
Claimants to appeal fatal Samarco disaster ruling in UK court
THE Court of Appeals, the most senior court in England and Wales, has ruled to allow proceedings ...
Two workers killed in acetic acid leak
TWO workers have been killed by an acetic acid leak at a LyondellBasell plant in Texas, US.
At least two killed in explosion at German chemical disposal site
AN EXPLOSION at a hazardous chemical disposal site in Germany has killed at least two people, wit...
Fire at Thailand chemicals facility
AN EXPLOSION and fire at a chemicals facility in Bangkok has killed one person and injured more t...
US refinery shutdown serves as a lesson for process safety
“PROCESS safety is more than just life preservation, it’s about making sure that we look after th...
Explosion at Illinois lubricants facility
AN explosion occurred at a facility in Rockton, Illinois, US, on 14 June. The subsequent fire has...
Oil spill preparations underway for stricken ship off Sri Lanka
EXPERTS have begun modelling how oil might spill from a cargo ship that caught fire off the coast...
Firefighter injured at US chemical plant explosion
ONE firefighter was injured while responding to a large fire at a chemical plant in Affton, St Lo...
Wastewater leak causes concern for Florida marine life
ENVIRONMENTALISTS are concerned about the impacts on marine life after days of leakage of contami...
Fire occurs at oil refinery in Mexico
A FIRE broke out at the Lazaro Cardenas oil refinery in Minatitlan, Mexico, resulting in seven pe...
Five seriously injured in Indonesian refinery explosion
AN EXPLOSION, which occurred at 00:45 local time on 29 March at an Indonesian refinery, has serio...
Parties reach US$7.02bn settlement for fatal Brazil dam collapse
MINING giant Vale and Brazilian authorities have agreed on a global settlement of about R$37.69bn...
Brazil dam collapse victims take TÜV SÜD to court
TWO years after the fatal collapse of a Vale dam, victims have brought landmark action against TÜ...
Partnership to develop UK’s first low carbon production hub
REFINERY owner Essar Oil UK and Progressive Energy, a project development and implementation comp...
Worker dies in US chemical plant explosion
AN explosion at a chemical facility in Belle, West Virginia, US has killed one worker and injured...
Fire at Texas oil storage tank injures seven
SEVEN contractors were injured after a fire and explosion occurred at a crude oil storage tank in...
Four killed in explosion at UK water treatment site
FOUR people have died and another has been injured in an explosion at a UK water treatment works.
Fire at Indian gas well extinguished after five months
A FIRE which broke out at a gas well in India, in June, has now been “doused completely”, accord...
Two killed in Indian reactor explosion
ON 5 November, in the early hours of the morning, two people were killed as a result of a reactor...
UK students at Bradford awarded IChemE’s 2020 SIESO Medal
ICHEME has awarded a team of engineering students at the University of Bradford, UK, with the 202...
Explosion occurs at Florida chemical facility
AN explosion occurred at a chemical facility in Florida, US, on 8 September in a storage area for...
Another fire breaks out at Beirut port
A FIRE has broken out at a warehouse in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, just over a month after an a...
Fire at Louisiana chemical plant following damage from Hurricane Laura
A CHEMICAL plant in Louisiana, US, caught fire after damage from Hurricane Laura caused a chlorin...
Initiative launches first global standard for safer mining waste storage
ON 5 August, the Global Tailings Review (GTR) initiative established the first global standard fo...
Ammonium nitrate explosion in Beirut kills at least 135 people
AN explosion at a warehouse storing ammonium nitrate in Beirut, Lebanon, has killed at least 135 ...
Refinery fire in South Africa kills two
A FIRE at Milnerton Refinery in South Africa has killed two employees and injured seven.
Fire erupts at Indian gas well
A FIRE has broken out at an Indian gas well which has been leaking for weeks.
10 dead after chemicals factory explosion in India
10 workers have now died following an explosion on 3 June, at a chemicals factory in India, repor...
Oil tank collapse likely caused by melting permafrost
AROUND 21,000 t of diesel has leaked into a Russian river near Norilsk, which is inside the Arcti...
Vale ordered to put aside US$1.47bn for dam collapse damages
BRAZILIAN mining company Vale has been ordered by a judge to put aside around R$7.93bn (US$1.47bn...
Italian blast seriously injures two workers
ON 15 May, an explosion at a chemicals plant in an industrial zone in Venice, Italy seriously bur...
Hundreds hospitalised after styrene gas leak in India
A GAS leak at an Indian chemical factory has killed at least 11 people and hospitalised hundreds....
Explosion at US paper mill
AT around noon local time, on 15 April, an explosion occurred at a paper mill in Jay, Maine, US. ...
TEPCO proposes methods to dispose of treated water stored at Fukushima
TEPCO, Japan’s largest power company group, has released a report which outlines two potential me...
One dead in Spain chemical plant explosion
AN explosion at a small chemicals plant in Barcelona, Spain has killed one and injured 13 others,...
Fire at South Korea facility injures 56
A FIRE has occurred at Lotte Chemical’s naphtha cracker in Seosan, South Korea, injuring at least...
Vale to begin disposing of mining waste from fatal Brazil dam collapse
MINING giant Vale is to begin disposing of the mine tailings from the fatal collapse of one of it...
Fire occurs at Marathon Petroleum refinery in California
A LARGE fire has been reported at the Marathon Petroleum refinery in Carson, California, followin...
Vale knew Brazil dam was unstable more than a decade before collapse, says report
ACCORDING to the summary of a report by an independent consulting committee created by Vale, the ...
Judge accepts fatal dam collapse charges
REUTERS reports that a Brazilian state judge has accepted homicide and environmental crime charge...
Vale to invest in technology to reduce dam use and increase safety
BRAZILIAN mining giant Vale is to invest in technology to reduce tailings dam use and increase op...
Queensland mining industry needs to improve safety to avoid deaths
AN expert report says that 12 deaths are likely to occur over any five-year period within the Que...
Three killed in Texas oil well blowout
AN oil well blowout in Texas, US, has killed three people.
16 charged with homicide over fatal Brazil dam collapse
BRAZILIAN prosecutors have charged 16 people – including former Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman – with...
Vale launches project to recover area affected by fatal dam collapse
BRAZILIAN mining giant Vale has launched a pilot project for the environmental recovery of the ar...
Explosion at Spanish ethylene oxide plant
AN explosion at an ethylene oxide facility in Tarragona, Spain, has killed three people and injur...
Fire at Scottish Borders chemical plant
A FIRE occurred at Rathburn Chemicals in the Scottish Borders, UK, on 10 January.
Several factors led to fatal Brazil dam collapse, reports expert panel
AN expert panel commissioned by Brazilian mining giant Vale has concluded that a number of factor...
New evacuation a week after Texas chemical plant explosion
A WEEK after the explosion at the Texas Petroleum Chemical (TPC) facility in Port Neches, Texas, ...
UPDATE: Explosion at Texas chemicals facility
A SECOND major explosion at a chemicals facility in Port Neches, Texas, has resulted in the evacu...
Explosion at Texas chemicals facility
THREE people have been injured in an explosion at the Texas Petroleum Chemical (TPC) Group facili...
Dam collapse tragedy could have been prevented
BRAZIL’s National Mining Agency (ANM) has released a technical report on the history of the taili...
US CSB release update on Texas chemicals plant explosion
THE US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released a factual update on the explosion and fire which ...
Husky receives approval for refinery rebuild
HUSKY Energy has received the required permit approvals to move forward with its more than US$400...
Fire breaks out at a French chemicals plant
A FIRE broke out at a Lubrizol chemicals factory in Rouen, France, in the early hours of 26 Septe...
Malaysian students awarded new IChemE SIESO Medal
ICHEME has awarded the new SIESO Medal, a student process safety award, to four chemical engineer...
Two die in explosion at former SSI UK steelworks site
TWO contract workers have been killed after an explosion at a former SSI UK steelworks site in So...
Drone attack cuts global oil capacity by 5%
DRONES have targeted the world’s biggest oil exporter, Saudi Aramco, reducing the state-owned Sau...
Fracked natural gas well blowout still burning after two weeks
A BLOWOUT at a fracked natural gas well in Louisiana, US, has been burning for two weeks and is e...
Blast at Indian pharmaceutical plant injures 16
A REACTOR exploded at a pharmaceutical plant in India injuring 16 workers, according to reports.
ExxonMobil plant explosion injures 37
ON 31 July an explosion and subsequent fire broke out at an ExxonMobil plant in Baytown, Harris C...
Gas plant explosion in China kills 15
A GASIFICATION plant in China’s central Henan province has exploded, killing 15 people and seriou...
Fire at Petronas gas processing plant
PETRONAS Gas (PGB), a subsidiary of Petronas, has confirmed that a fire which broke out at one of...
Two dead and one missing after explosion at Indian chemicals plant
AN explosion and fire at Punjab Chemicals and Crop Protection in Dera Bassi, India, has killed tw...
Philadelphia oil refinery to shut down following fire
REFINERY owner Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) has announced that it is to permanently close ...
43 people killed at Glencore mine
A LANDSLIDE at Glencore’s largest copper and cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC...
Valero fined £5m following fatal Pembroke refinery explosion in 2011
VALERO Energy has been fined £5m (US$6.4m) following an explosion at its Pembroke refinery in Wal...
Final trials begin on a facility to store Chernobyl’s spent nuclear fuel
ON 6 May the final system-wide trials of a new dry storage facility at Chernobyl began. ISF2, loc...
Explosion at Illinois silicones plant
AN explosion and fire at a US silicones manufacturing plant has killed three people with one othe...
Two injured following Tata Steel explosion
IN the early hours of today, two people were injured at an explosion at the Tata steelworks plant...
Update: Criminal measures taken against 26 following fatal Chinese chemicals explosion
LOCAL authorities in China have taken “criminal coercive measures” against 26 people following a ...
Three killed in Mongolia chemicals explosion
THREE people have been killed and five injured at a privately-owned chemical plant in China’s Inn...
Fire at Petronas refinery in Malaysia
AN explosion and fire occurred at the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in Johor, Malaysia, a re...
Update: Three employees had “significant responsibility” for Chinese chemicals plant explosion
THREE employees of Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical Company are said to have “significant responsibilit...
Worker killed in Texas chemicals plant fire
ONE worker has been killed and two seriously injured in a chemicals plant fire in Texas, US.
Three more Brazil dams at critical alert
VALE has put three more of its Brazilian mine tailings dams on the highest level of alert – level...
Operations halted at Vale
A court decision has ordered Vale to stop activities at 13 of its mine tailings containment struc...
Update: 78 confirmed dead after Chinese chemicals plant explosion
ON 25 March the death toll following an explosion at a Chinese chemicals plant rose to 78, report...
Update: 47 dead after Chinese chemicals plant explosion
THE death toll following an explosion at a Chinese chemicals plant has now reached 47, reports st...
Six killed in Chinese chemicals plant explosion
FOLLOWING an explosion at a Tianjiayi chemicals plant in Yancheng, eastern China, six people are ...
Employees re-arrested after fatal Brazil dam collapse
ACCORDING to Reuters, last week a Brazilian court ordered the arrest of 11 Vale employees and two...
Brazil dam collapse prosecutors investigate collusion
THE lead prosecutor investigating the cause of the fatal dam collapse at a mine in Brazil has all...
Brazil approves dam safety bill
THE Brazilian Senate has passed a bill to tighten dam safety, reports Reuters. This follows the c...
Employees arrested after Brazil dam breach
EIGHT Vale employees have been arrested as part of a criminal investigation into the collapse of ...
Vale ‘knew’ Brazil dam was at risk of collapse, report says
REUTERS says it has seen an internal document that shows that Vale knew last year that its dam in...
Update: 165 people confirmed dead after Brazil dam breach
165 people have now been confirmed dead following the collapse of a Vale mine tailings dam in Bra...
Update: 157 confirmed dead after dam breach in Brazil
TWO weeks after the collapse of a Vale tailings dam 157 people have been confirmed dead, 134 of w...
Update: 134 confirmed dead after Brazil dam breach
FOLLOWING the collapse of a Vale dam in Brazil, 134 people have now been confirmed dead, with 120...
Update: Number killed in Brazil dam breach reaches 99
AFTER the fatal collapse of a Vale mine tailings dam in Brazil, 99 people have been reported dead...
Fatal dam breach in Brazil leaves hundreds missing
A TAILINGS dam in Brazil has collapsed, leaving a reported 16 people dead and 297 missing. Other ...
Oil tanker fire off the coast of Hong Kong kills one
A FIRE that broke out on an oil tanker off the coast of Hong Kong has killed one, injured seven, ...
Explosion at Chinese chemicals facility kills three
AN explosion at a chemicals facility in the Xinjiang region in China has killed three people and ...
Explosion at natural gas facility injures four
AN explosion at MarkWest natural gas processing facility in Pennsylvania, US, has injured four pe...
Chemical gas leak causes deadly explosive chain reaction
CHEMCHINA has released a statement stating that a blast which killed 23 and injured 22 was caused...
Impossible to clean Husky oil spill
Husky Energy has spilled an estimated 1572 barrels of oil off Canada’s Atlantic coast. CBC News r...
Explosion at hazardous waste facility kills one
AN explosion at a US Ecology facility in Idaho, US, has killed one worker and injured three.
Flooding causes damage to Dangote refinery
FLOODING due to heavy rainfall has caused damage to the US$10bn Dangote refinery site in Nigeria.
One person killed at chemical factory explosion in Alabama
AN EXPLOSION has occurred at the Umicore Speciality Chemicals plant in Arab, Alabama, killing one...
Explosion at Indian petrochemicals facility kills six
THE explosion of a methane tank at the Mohit petrochemical factory in Bijnor, India, earlier toda...
Alliance seeks partner to boost lab safety
PISTOIA ALLIANCE, a global-not-for-profit life sciences organisation, is seeking a strategic part...
Fire at chemical plant on Stanlow refinery site
A fire broke out yesterday at a chemical plant on the same site as the Stanlow oil refinery in Ch...
Two die in furnace at Dubai aluminium plant
Two workers have died at an industrial furnace fire at an Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) smelter...
Accident at Briar Chemicals kills one
EMERGENCY services were called to reports of an explosion at 15:10 local time on 27 July at Briar...
Explosion at chemical plant in Ohio
AN explosion and fire occurred at the Emerald Performance Materials chemical plant in Akron, Ohio...
Fire at Kemaman Bitumen Company refinery injures four
A FIRE at the Kemaman Bitumen Company (KBC) refinery in Malaysia has destroyed two crude oil tank...
One killed and four injured at Turkish explosives factory
A blast at a state-owned explosives factory in Ankara, Turkey, on 24 May has killed one and injur...
Texas chemical plant fire injures 21
A fire at the Kuraray America chemical facility in Pasadena, Texas, US, on 19 May has injured 21 ...
CSB releases final report and video on Arkema fire
THE US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released its final report and an updated animation on the ...
Fire at US speciality chemicals plant
A CHEMICAL plant in Louisiana, US, has caught fire, with no injuries reported.
Offshore industry has come “perilously close to disaster”, warns HSE
HSE has warned the UK’s offshore oil and gas operators that they must do more to tackle hydrocarb...
One seriously injured in Wisconsin refinery blast
AN explosion at a Husky Energy-owned oil refinery in the US has reportedly injured at least 15 pe...
Explosion hits Valero’s Texas City refinery
AN explosion and fire has hit Valero Energy’s 225,000 bbl/d Texas City refinery, with no injuries...
Chemical companies review lessons learned from Hurricane Harvey
AN INDUSTRY forum held in Texas has discussed the response of chemical companies to Hurricane Har...
Explosion at Unipetrol chemical plant in Czech Republic
AN EXPLOSION at a Unipetrol refinery is reported to have killed six people and injured others.
Ineos restarts Forties system after unexpected shutdown
INEOS has restarted the UK’s Forties Pipeline after the closure of a valve forced a shutdown of t...
Fire engulfs Taiwan refinery
AN explosion at an oil refinery in Taiwan set off a fire yesterday that took hours to extinguish.
Huge oil tanker ablaze off China
AN oil tanker is on fire and at risk of exploding after colliding with a freight ship off the eas...
Nexen charged after oil sands explosion deaths
CANADA’s Alberta province has brought eight charges against Nexen Energy after an on-site explosi...
Japan chemical factory blast kills one man, wounds 11
ONE man has been killed and another 11 injured in an explosion and subsequent fire at the Arakawa...
Video: CSB releases detailed animation of Arkema incident
THE US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released a detailed animation of the events leading to the...
India power station blast kills 26, injures 80
AN explosion at the Unchahar power station in Utter Pradesh, India has killed 26 people and injur...
Major hydrochloric acid leak in Hull
A VAPOUR cloud formed over the Port of Hull, UK, after a leak of hydrochloric acid from a tank, a...
Two injured in Nottingham gas explosion
TWO men have been seriously injured in a gas explosion at the Colwick Industrial Estate in Nottin...
Free safety data for Hurricane Harvey relief
A PROVIDER of environment, health, safety (EHS) and sustainability software has offered free acce...
Arkema sets fire to remaining chemicals stocks at flooded site
All nine chemical containers have ignited at the flooded Arkema plant in Crosby, outside Houston,...
Safety concerns raised about Arkema Crosby
ARKEMA’S organic peroxide plant in Crosby, which has already suffered reported explosions and a s...
Chemical fire reported at Arkema Texas plant
ARKEMA has reported a chemical fire at its organic peroxide (OP) plant in Crosby, Texas, amid flo...
Chemical fire expected at flooded Texas plant
A CHEMICAL fire or explosion is expected within days at Arkema’s organic peroxide plant in Crosby...
US CSB safety warning after Hurricane Harvey
A SAFETY alert has been issued by the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), ur...
Shell shuts down ‘most’ of Pernis refinery
SHELL says that its Pernis refinery in Rotterdam in the Netherlands is not expected to restart op...
Hackitt to lead major UK fire safety review
FORMER IChemE president Dame Judith Hackitt is to lead a major independent inquiry into fire safe...
Norilsk Nickel mine explosion kills four
AN explosion at Norilsk Nickel’s Zapolyarny mine in the far north of Russia has killed four people.
IChemE’s PSEP impact factor up 40%
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION (PSEP) now has the highest impact factor ever held by...
