SINOPEC Engineering Incorporation

Safeti for QRA analysis

SEI uses Safeti for QRA analysis

SEI (Sinopec Engineering Incorporation) started using Safeti in 2000, when their QSHE department purchased 10 licenses for Safeti and distributed to ten affiliated companies. This included its engineering company. As the biggest EPC enterprise affiliated to Sinopec, SEI undertakes the overall project planning for large oil and petrochemical integrated plants, refineries and chemical plants.

“At the very beginning, DNV introduced quantitative risk analysis (QRA) to us,” says Professor Yu Qi Jie, expert in oil and gas engineering design for SEI (Sinopec Engineering Incorporation). “This opened a new perspective to us in our consideration of the analysis and management of safety. Besides the strong and timely support from the DNV team in China, during the usage period we feel we have had an active voice in the steering of Safeti for it to meet our demanding needs,” he says.

Extensive validation

“We can see our influence in recent versions of Safeti. We especially benefit from the extensive validation work that DNV carry out to ensure that Safeti’s models are the best available tools in the industry. We make extensive use of Phast and Safeti’s unified dispersion model (UDM). It is very reassuring to see that the UDM has recently been approved by the US Department of Transport’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) for use in LNG siting applications.”

Currently, SEI makes use of three Safeti licences and recently purchased the Safeti 3D Explosions module and several multicomponent modules. “Safeti is not only able to calculate the individual risk and social risk, but it can apply to the simulation of incident consequences as well. For instance, Phast includes all the best practice models we need for calculations such as TNT, Multi Energy and Baker Strehlow for explosions, etc,” he says.

The results from Phast and Safeti are displayed as clear, intuitive reports and graphs which are easy to read and use. This informs users of the phenomenon being modelled by the software which can be compared against expectations and experience. Before Safeti was available in China, safety analysis relied largely on subjectivity and led to results with diverse answers. “Using Safeti allows us to compare our judgements against a consistent set of results, which improves our analyses overall,” says Ms Yu.

Attentive to user needs

He is impressed with the development team for Phast and Safeti at DNV. “Their attitude leaves a deep impression on me,” he says. “They are all down-to-earth people who listen attentively to the user’s needs well. All along the way, they can stand in the position of the users and pay high attention to our opinions, gradually upgrading the functions of the software, and perfecting it.”

Ms Yu says that when SEI started using Safeti, they communicated regularly with local technical support and those based in DNV’s London office. “The technical support team solved our problems in a timely manner. Later, as we have gradually accumulated experience, we have found ourselves part of a local user community. Together, we exchange and share our experiences and offer and seek advice with other Safeti users in China. This user community has an internet forum containing general Q&A and serves as a communication platform for new users of Safeti. By now, most of the basic questions relating to the software are posted there,” he says.

Technology award

The “2012 China National Science and Technology Advancement Award” went to the Pu Guang Gas purification plant. SEI undertook the overall responsibility of the design, from engineering to construction. Ms Yu was responsible for the safety in this project, which lasted more than seven years. SEI is the first Safeti user in China and also the most experienced user. They are looking forward to being an early adopter of Safeti Offshore software in the near future.