SAGD Facility

Overview:

SAGD Facility
Industry: Oil & Gas
Date of ACM Project: Fall 2013

Project

HAZOP, LOPA and Facility Siting studies were required to meet a project stage gate and were completed by ACM Facility Safety.

The Challenge

Our client was under a tight time constraint in order to meet the project schedule, while still ensuring an optimally safe facility. In addition, only limited formal procedures and standards were in place for the completion and execution of a HAZOP or LOPA. 

The Solution

The following steps were taken to ensure a quality HAZOP and LOPA analysis were completed in a timely manner:

• ACM Facility Safety staff assisted the client in further developing the HAZOP and LOPA procedures and ensured that all team members understood these procedures and risk assessment rules prior to the commencement of session.
• The project was divided into two major sections such that two teams would simultaneously perform the HAZOPs and LOPAs. In order to ensure interconnecting scenarios were captured, a meeting was held at the end of each day between the facilitators to transfer interconnect cases to the appropriate team.
• The scribes, who all have a process engineering background, were efficient and knowledgeable with regards to the process and software used in session to be able to quickly reference previously discussed scenarios and issues. This resulted in a much smoother flow of discussion and reduced the time that would have otherwise been required to complete the HAZOP. The use of scribes allowed the facilitator to focus more on group management rather than documenting the sessions.
• The Facilitators were able to effectively guide the HAZOP team to some of the less obvious causes and keep lengthy and unnecessary discussions to a minimum.
• Rapid completion of LOPA preparation to allow for a very quick HAZOP to LOPA turnaround.
• Prompt release of an initial report, which was Issued For Review (IFR).

Results and Testimonial

ACM was able to help the client's HAZOP and LOPA team develop an understanding of their procedures and executed quality HAZOP and LOPA sessions on time. Some of the praise the client had for the ACM staff:

• 95% of the HAZOP teams rated the ACM team as having achieved a "Very Good" – "Excellent" rating.
• The HAZOP team commented that the HAZOP was the fastest they had sat in on given the length, and the scribes were "the best they had ever seen."
• "Session was efficiently planned and organized."
• "Turn-around time of the report was exceptional."
• "[Facilitator] was extremely responsive. Most Facilitators are hard to get ahold of after the session."