Petroleum terminal deaths — Lack of safety measures cited
Borneo Post Online, 4 August 2012
KUALA LUMPUR: The Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) has cited a lack of safety measures for the two accidental deaths at petroleum jetty terminals between January and June this year.
Its assistant director of major hazards, Izani Mohd Zain, said the deaths occurred in Pengerang, Johor.
The first death occurred in January when an engineer died during a dive to carry out installation of a cathodic protection on a jetty structure, he said, adding that CPR was administered but the engineer failed to respond.
Izani said the second, on June 16, was due to the failure of the employer to monitor employees, resulting in one of them falling overboard and drowning.
“Each petroleum company and terminal operator has its own safety procedure, but all of them have a standard practice of stopping work during bad weather and thunderstorms, especially when working with hazardous and highly flammable materials,” Izani told Bernama.
Summit Petroleum Sdn Bhd safety manager Chong Kian Fook told Bernama there was no common standard procedure at petroleum terminals.
“Every company has its own safety policy and procedure, but they all follow the basic guidelines provided by DOSH,” he said. Summit Petroleum runs an oil and gas facility in Port Klang.
Chong said the standard procedure depended on the company’s financial ability and manpower.
“If they have the financial means and enough manpower to execute more safety measures, they would but most companies follow the basic standards of safety,” he said.
Chong also said that one of the safety practices at petroleum terminals was to stop all discharge or loading works during heavy rain with low visibility and thunderstorms.
Izani of DOSH said that though the department was not in charge of safety procedures on tankers, it was looking at options on how it could assist in the investigation into the incident in Labuan last week.
A Malaysia International Shipping Corporation (MISC) tanker, Bunga Alpina, caught fire, triggering an explosion, at the Petronas Chemicals Methanol Sdn Bhd terminal, resulting in the deaths of five crew.
Media reports earlier stated that the tanker could have been struck by lightning during a thunderstorm.
While the real cause of the incident had yet to be established as the investigation is ongoing, the meteorological department confirmed that during the 2 am incident, Labuan was experiencing a thunderstorm. — Bernama
