Jeff Gates, Chevron Phillips Chemical
Delivering projects and effective, efficient and safe turnarounds requires a specific and highly organized methodology. “Turnarounds are schedule driven, stressful, involve simultaneous operations and often bring in inexperienced participants,” said Jeff Gates, safety supervisor for projects and turnarounds at Chevron Phillips Chemical Cedar Bayou. “These aspects can often increase risks while eroding efforts to maintain safety awareness and hazard recognition at high levels.”
The good news is there are various strategies that can help improve a turnaround while reducing associated risks. Gates presented the various programs applied at his facility, from implantation to execution, at the recent Texas/Louisiana EHS Seminar.
One of the best strategies for improving industry-best practices, Gates said, is fostering “preparation and planning. A safe turnaround is usually one that is well planned and executed. When you finish the last one and you do your analysis of what went right and what went wrong on the last one, that’s when you need to get the groundwork established on how you fix and get better for the next one.
“That doesn’t always happen. Fortunately for us at Cedar, our leadership team developed my group for that purpose, so that’s all we do. We manage projects, and we manage large capital projects, and we manage turnarounds.”
Early onboarding may be essential for facilitating an effective turnaround process.
“We like to bring our contractors in — our key contractors — four, six and sometimes eight months before the turn-around,” Gates explained. “There is a cost associated with this, we all know that, but the bottom line is the earlier you can get your contractors on-site, the better you are because they can start understanding your policies and procedures now before the incident happens.
“And you’re also learning from your contractors. They do these things every day; they learn things from other facilities you probably haven’t thought of. We all want to learn from somebody else instead of making our own mistakes and then try to figure out how to fix it.”
When it comes to contractor engagement, Gates said the best performers in the industry have contractors they know and who know them, as they develop long-term relationships with high-performing contractors that get the job done.
“Develop relationships with your key contractors and keep going forward with the same ones, rather than trying to find a different contractor for each turnaround that charges the least,” he said.
Training contractor supervision and safety staff in regard to risk perception and risk management is a crucial element of a turnaround that ensures contractors and client supervision are on the same page.
“If your client and your client supervision are not talking the same language out in the field, there are all kinds of holes that get filled by assumptions,” Gates said. “That’s what happens when we’re not clear.”
He also pointed out the importance of using moments of high influence and having regular and visible company and contractor management involvement at all levels.
“If your safety staff is not boots-on-the-ground out there, then you can forget it,” Gates said. “You’ve got to be on the ground demonstrating what your expectations are. If not, then it’s for naught.”
Additionally, communicating life-critical and zero-tolerance policies, as well as meeting prior to the start of high-risk activities, assists in enhancing awareness and hazard identification.
“If we have a critical job, before we go out into the field we’re going to sit down during the turnaround. Because when we plan the job, the participants that plan the job may not be the same ones who execute the job,” Gates said.
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