2005年美國德州的英國石油煉油廠發生蒸氣雲爆炸，異構化工場在開爐過程中一座分離塔排放出高可燃性的輕質油料，引發火警及數次爆炸，造成15人死亡、170 人受傷，是美國近年最嚴重的工安意外，加上同年12月英國Buncefield油庫發生嚴重火災和爆炸事故，火勢蔓延五天，造成約2,000人緊急疏散，這兩個重大事故發生於美國製程安全管理法規頒布13年後，震驚全球，並引起了英、美兩國化工產業主管機關的注意，要求徹查製程安全管理相關法規的落實。英國石油德州煉油廠事故發生後，由美國前國務卿貝克組成的獨立調查小組所發表的貝克報告影響製程安全管理深遠，也開啟了製程安全思維的轉變，報告的第一項建議即為製程安全領導，高階主管有效的領導及參與，被認為製程安全管理關鍵的成功因素。 本研究參考了英國能源協會頒布的高階製程安全管理架構及OECD頒布的以公司治理推行製程安全管理架構與英國製程安全領導小組頒布的製程安全領導能力原則等文獻，說明了製程安全領導原則及單元建置步驟，在英國石油德州煉油廠蒸氣雲爆炸及英國Buncefield油庫火災爆炸等重大事故後，石化和煉製產業發達的政府和業界也希望可以藉由這些慘痛的案例記取教訓，特別是在高雄地下管線爆炸發生後，也提供了台灣化工業一個學習的機會。 ;A vapor cloud explosion at a British Petroleum’s refinery located in Texas City, Texas killed 15 people on the spot and caused severe injuries to 170 people in 2005. Another serious fire and explosion incident, lasted for five days, in the UK Buncefield oil depot in December 2005, forced 2,000 people to evacuate. These two incidents, occurred 13 years after the promulgation of US OSHA’s Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals, shocked the world and caused both the industries and competent authorities of the United States and the United Kingdom to thoroughly examine the design and implementation of relevant regulations. A significant paradigm shift was emphasized by the Report of the BP US Refineries Independent Safety Review Panel, chaired by former Secretary of State Mr. James Baker III. The report recommended that successful process safety management can only be accomplished by a strong leadership. This study carefully examines the leadership role in process safety management using the Energy Institute’s High Level Framework for Process Safety Management, OECD’s Corporate Governance for Process Safety, and UK’s Process Safety Leadership Group’s Principles of Process Safety Leadership as the primary references. Attributes of process safety management leadership and implementation procedures are presented in this study. It is hoped that the lessons learned from the BP Texas City refinery tragedy and the Buncefield incident can offer a great learning opportunity to Taiwan’s chemical and oil refining industries especially after the Kaohsiung underground pipeline explosion.
