Critical Operating Procedures

Operational issues of any Petrochemical plant or Oil and gas field, upstream issues, etc.
Post Reply
neo
Posts: 42
Joined: 12 Jul 2025, 09:25
Area of interest: Chemical Engineering

Critical Operating Procedures

Post by neo »

What is the criteria to define & tag the critical operating procedures for a petrochemical unit?
ivani1
Posts: 63
Joined: 25 May 2025, 14:25
Area of interest: Mechanical Engineering

Re: Critical Operating Procedures

Post by ivani1 »

I would like to take the reference of API 754 where procedures have been considered as Tier-4 indicator. And when we talk about the critical or not, I do not find anything other than the operating & maintenance procedures mentioned there.
I understand that the procedures not related to operate & maintain can be considered non-critical.
neo
Posts: 42
Joined: 12 Jul 2025, 09:25
Area of interest: Chemical Engineering

Re: Critical Operating Procedures

Post by neo »

See if you refer to Annexure J and J.4 on Procedures in API 754, it talks about process safety related operating and maintenance procedures. And that I was thinking that not even all operating and maintaining procedures are process safety related. And here is where my query lies, how to tag such procedures.
ben
Posts: 214
Joined: 24 Aug 2010, 03:11
Area of interest: Mechanical Engineering

Re: Critical Operating Procedures

Post by ben »

I recall an interesting discussion happened at our place back in 2021 when we were reviewing the reporting of API 754 Process Safety KPIs. Operations & Maintenance needed to know which of their procedures would be considered to report Tier-4 KPI for procedures and no one was having an answer. Before this review, documentation section was reporting for ALL site level procedure including every department. Discussion with Process Safety Engineers allowed leaving Occupational HSE & Technical procedures behind and continue with ALL Operating and Maintenance procedures. And that is the current practice. There has not been any further criteria developed or applied to identify Process Safety related O & M procedures.
I do believe that procedures related to maintaining non-critical equipment at site are the ones which can be identified and left out however this may not be the only criteria as a standalone procedure may be required here to controll Process Safety O & M procedures.
Post Reply