Process Safety Management

From a safety point of view, MOL Group companies operate very heterogenic processes including upstream operations (drilling, exploration and field operations), very complex and deep crude oil processing, logistic activities (including pipeline operations), retail operations, maintenance activities etc. Controlling the risk of all these chemical, mechanical, transportation, storage etc. operations is very difficult.

In 2004, MOL Group launched the “Safe Workplaces” project to improve safety culture and to implement a Group-level comprehensive Process Safety Management system - PSM. This system aims to address all elements of process safety to identify, understand and reduce risks related to our chemical and non-chemical hazardous processes. The new management system, which ensures a unified approach and the same high level safety performance across the company, was implemented at companies involved in the Safe Workplaces project (companies in Hungary, Slovakia and Romania) in less than three years (2007-9). The main parts of the established PSM system are:

• PSM line network (operational managers, different level process safety engineers)
• Task forces (Group level knowledge centers)
• Trainings (refresh trainings and training modules for PSM elements)
• PSM regulations to reflect all PSM requirements (Group and local operative regulations)
• Group/Divisional/site level annual programs
• Auditing

It has been evident risk identification (HAZOP, What if studies) is one of the most demanding PSM tasks and to complete them at all identified PSM critical operations we will need more two years. To check the efficiency of PSM system implementation so-called PSM Compliance audits are performed at all PSM critical operations beginning 2010. We hope we will achieve minimum 75% PSM compliance already during the fist audit.