AWARENESS COURSE
PROCESS SAFETY & MAJOR ACCIDENT HAZARD AWARENESS
How major accidents develop onshore and offshore, and how barriers, systems and people prevent them.
Poseidon Training in-house course. It is not an OPITO course, it is not OPITO-approved and it carries no external accreditation.
Overview
Major accidents are rare, but when they happen the consequences are catastrophic. This four-hour course explains how they develop, from an initiating event and loss of containment through ignition and escalation, and how preventive and mitigating barriers, safety-critical systems and everyday decisions stop them.
The course keeps a deliberate balance of onshore and offshore examples: gas processing, refining, terminals, pipelines and LNG; platforms, FPSOs and well interfaces. Its case studies come from official investigation reports: Piper Alpha (1988), BP Texas City (2005) and Buncefield (2005), with a short modern offshore example.
Process safety matters at every level, from the control room to the planning office to the boardroom. The course builds awareness; it does not develop engineering or analytical competence.
Who it is for
Anyone whose work can affect process safety: operators and control room operators, production and process technicians, mechanical, electrical and instrument technicians, maintenance, drilling and offshore personnel, supervisors, team leaders, planners, engineers, contractors, HSE, logistics and project personnel, and managers working in operational facilities.
What the course covers
- 1.Process safety fundamentals: process safety and personal safety, hazardous substances and energy, loss of containment, and low-frequency, high-consequence risk.
- 2.Major Accident Hazards and events: inventories, pressure, temperature, scenarios and escalation, onshore and offshore.
- 3.How major accidents develop: initiating events, loss of control and containment, ignition, barrier failure, latent conditions and weak signals.
- 4.Barriers and layers of protection: preventive and mitigating barriers, degradation and impairment, and Bowtie at awareness level.
- 5.Safety-critical systems: Safety Critical Elements, Performance Standards and Safety Critical Tasks.
- 6.Process Safety Management: the key elements, Management of Change, temporary change, asset integrity and the link with Control of Work.
- 7.People, culture and organisation: leadership, operational discipline, shift handover, production pressure, normalisation of deviance and Stop Work.
- 8.Learning and responsibility: performance indicators, assurance, lessons from case studies, and what each individual can do.
How the course runs
Instructor-led, with original diagrams, five short activities and a case study review. Definitions from specific regulations are always shown with their country and date, because they differ between jurisdictions.
The course ends with a 20-question interactive knowledge review. There is no pass mark and no score. The instructor uses the review to find and close any gaps in understanding before the course finishes. You complete the course by attending the full four hours, taking part in the review, and having your understanding of the safety principles confirmed by the instructor. If anything remains unclear, the instructor arranges further review. This is not a fail.
Upcoming Process Safety & MAH Awareness dates
Process Safety & MAH Awareness dates are being scheduled.
We are finalising the next public course dates. Register your interest and we will contact you as soon as dates are released.
Arranging training for an organisation? Group and private delivery can be discussed at any time.
What this course does not qualify you to do
Awareness level only. This certificate does not qualify the holder to conduct HAZOP, HAZID, LOPA, QRA, SIL or Bowtie studies, develop Safety Cases or Performance Standards, classify Safety Critical Elements, perform barrier assurance, determine ALARP compliance, design Safety Instrumented Systems, undertake consequence modelling, develop a MAPP or Safety Report, or approve process-safety engineering changes.
Both. It is written for anyone whose work can affect process safety, at any level. It builds awareness and does not replace discipline-specific engineering competence.
No. Bowtie is introduced at awareness level so that learners understand how barriers are shown. Leading or taking part in formal studies needs separate training.