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Texaco Refinery

Facility:

Texaco refinery, Milford Haven, UK
Date: Jul 1994
Consequences:

26 minor injuries and an estimated £48 million damage & major production loss.
Fatalities: None
Description
of Accident:

As a consequence of flammable hydrocarbon liquid being continuously pumped into a process vessel that, due to a valve malfunction, had its outlet closed, an explosion occurred. The flare system was not designed to cope with this excursion from normal operation resulting in a failure occurred in the outlet pipe.

 

20 tonnes of a mixture of hydrocarbon liquid and vapour were released, ignited and subsequently exploded. This caused a major hydrocarbon fire at the flare drum outlet and a number of secondary fires.
Key Lessons
Learnt:

·         Inadequate maintenance of plant and instrumentation

A control valve being shut when the control system indicated it was open.

 

·         Plant modification

Modification of the plant had been carried out without an assessment of the potential consequences.

 

·         Control Room Design: need to address plant layout and ergonomic issues

Control panel graphics did not provide necessary process overviews. Excessive number of alarms in emergency situation reduced the effectiveness of operator response.

 

·         Emergency Response/Spill Control

Attempts to keep the unit running when it should have been shut down
Report: Texaco Refinery.pdf
Links: HSE website: COMAH incident report
Thursday, May 31, 2007