PROCESSING PLANTS FACE OSHA SURPRISE VISITS

A rash of refinery and petrochemical plant accidents has spurred the Occupational Safety & Health Administration to begin surprise safety inspections at 26 big U.S. processing plants.

OSHA inspectors last week began verifying adequacy of safety precautions in plants in 1 0 states with high concentrations of hazardous work involving refining, petrochemical, and gas processing operations.

Targeted are Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, and Delaware.

OSHA officials will not say how many inspections will be conducted in each state, but plants of companies with more than 2,500 employees will be subject to unannounced visits.

OSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary Alan McMillan said surprise inspections will be scheduled the next several months, as manpower allows.

Meanwhile, investigators were still looking for the cause of an explosion and fire Aug. 23 at Shell Oil Co.'s Deer Park refining/petrochemical complex near Houston that injured two workers and knocked out a 165,000 b/sd crude distillation unit.

It was the latest in a series of accidents involving U.S. petroleum processing operations in the past 18 months. An explosion July 5 leveled the utilities area in ARCO Chemical Co.'s Channelview, Tex., petrochemical plant and killed 17 workers (OGJ, July 16, p. 28). An explosion and fire Oct. 23, 1989, killed 22 workers at Phillips 66 Co.'s Houston Chemical Complex in Pasadena, Tex. (OGJ, Oct. 30, 1989, p. 20).

IN DEPTH ANALYSIS

OSHA officials said each inspection in the special emphasis program (SEP) will cover an entire plant and include "an in depth analysis of one process unit."

To select a process unit for inspection, compliance officers will review past leaks, explosions, and related incidents, as well as the types and volumes of chemicals involved.

McMillan said particular attention will be paid to repair and maintenance activities, turnarounds, start-ups, and shutdowns.

Supplemental contract workers are often hired to assist in that kind of work, and organized labor officials have sought to link the increased use of nonunion contract workers to the recent string of accidents.

STAR PLANTS

About 20 refineries and petrochemical plants that have achieved Star status in OSHA's voluntary protection program (VPP) will not be targeted for surprise inspections.

Under VPP, large manufacturing plants can participate in a voluntary program to adhere to OSHA safety and health guidelines and thus avoid frequent and more stringent inspections.

VPP plants designated as Star status meet OSHA's highest standards for safety and health practices. Plants participating in VPP that meet lower standards but still perform at an above average level are designated as Merit status.

McMillan said those plants already have submitted to long term safety inspection programs similar to SEP.

Since starting VPP in 1983, McMillan said, 70 manufacturing plants in all industrial categories have qualified as Star sites. Only a few plants achieved Merit status. About 100 plants in all have participated in VPP.

OSHA INSPECTIONS

OSHA performs roughly 55,000 safety and health inspections yearly, about 80% of them just safety inspections.

McMillan said only a small percentage of those focus on plants involved in petroleum refining, gas processing, organic chemicals, plastics, and synthetic rubber, all of which OSHA classifies under its petrochemical category.

Lost workday rates in the petrochemical industry are generally lower than the national average, "so this industry doesn't get included as much in programmed inspection activity," he said.

Lost workdays of injured contract workers are included in construction industry-not petrochemical industry-statistics.

"Yet when petrochemical plants have accidents, there is a high potential for large scale, catastrophic disasters," McMillan said.

During the 81/2 months preceding the Phillips accident, OSHA performed safety inspections at 74 petrochemical plant sites, each lasting an average 47 hr. In the period since the Phillips accident ending July 6, OSHA performed 82 petrochemical safety inspections of 57 hr average duration.

McMillan said the duration of surprise SEP inspections will be much longer-weeks or months in some cases.

SHELL ACCIDENT

A Shell official in Houston said the loss of one distillation unit in Deer Park has not hampered products output at the 227,000 b/sd refinery.

"We expect to be able to continue to meet our customers' normal product needs," the official said, adding that Shell will purchase feedstock if necessary to meet normal processing needs.

The distillation unit was the only process equipment affected by the accident. Another 62,000 b/sd distillation unit continues to operate at the plant. No estimate was available last week about how long the damaged unit will be out of service.

In addition to Shell investigators at the accident, officials of OSHA, the National Response Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, U.S. Coast Guard, and Texas Air Control Board were on the scene.