Safety Management Systems
SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
The development of Safety Management Systems (SMS) as described by the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 and/or AS4645.1:2008 requires experience and HPS consultants have more than 10 years of building these types of framework documents.
The document is a mandatory requirement for any facility with Operating Plant or if the gas consumption is above 50GJ/hr.
Operating Plant as defined in the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 can include distribution networks (embedded networks) so this would include facilities that individually meter tenants on their facilities for gas consumption and bill for this usage directly.
Under AS4645.1:2008 the requirements are very similar to the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004, where a Safety and Operating Plant (SAOP) is required. In Queensland the management and implementation of the Safety Management System falls to three mandatory posts; Executive Safety Manager (ESM) – the most senior representative of the company, the Operator – a person appointed by the ESM, Site Safety Manager (SSM) – appointed by the Operator and responsible for the day to day application of the SMS.
The appointment of the posts of Operator and Site Safety Manager should be an “appropriately qualified person” and the responsibilities of the SSM fall back on the Operator in their absence.
This typically means the SSM and Operator need to be formally trained in the responsibilities of the role and the requirements of the site to be compliant with the SMS. HPS can provide this training either on site or off site to ensure that the appointed staff meet the requirements of being “appropriately qualified”.
The SMS itself is a framework document that details the documents, procedures and other systems that control safety on site for employees and contractors with respect of the gas assets and their associated risks on site. These documents and procedures are not created as part of the SMS but drawn from existing policies and procedures that should already exist on site.
Where such documents do not exist, they can be developed by HPS but this typically is outside the scope of the SMS works.
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