Spills

1. Never touch a spill.
2. Always report any spills to your HSE Manager or Supervisor.
3. Prevent spills spreading, especially into the wider environment.
4. Always store chemicals; ask your company for further information about this.
5. Prevent spills from reaching equipment, tools and materials you or your colleagues are working with.

A spill is an unintentional release of a harmful substance, e.g. natural gas, natural gas condensate, petroleum, chemicals, excipients and other liquids or gases. If a spill is unintentional, then it is classified as an incident.

A spill often occurs in critical installation parts, e.g. shaft seals of valves, valves and pumps, seals and gaskets, fittings and flanges, underfloor/underground pipes, flexible hose connections and valves.

COMMON CAUSES OF SPILLS

• old age of an installation
• incomplete maintenance program or backlog in undertaking maintenance
• operational errors
• human errors

• adhere to your company’s work protocols, procedures and instructions which have been developed specifically to manage the risk of spills; if you believe this is not the case, notify your HSE Manager
• identify spillage-critical parts and activities and report these to your HSE Manager
• be aware of the activities carried out by others and the substances, equipment and materials with which they are working

REPORTING SPILLS

• report every spill to your HSE Manager or Supervisor, even if no harmful substances have escaped into the environment
• any spills should be reported, recorded and registered; procedures may vary depending on the severity of the spill; ask your company about their specific policies and procedures in relation to reporting spills
• reporting, recording and registration of any spill is important to find structural solutions for problems and to prevent environmentally harmful situations from occurring

WHAT TO DO IN THE EVENT OF SPILLS?

• never touch a spill
• report all spills directly to your HSE Manager or Supervisor
• prevent further spillage and distribution into the environment if possible and safe to do so
• prevent spreading of the spill throughout the environment