Identifying serious injury or fatality (SIF) events involves some subjectivity, but these incidents can provide a key learning opportunity for the industry. Below are examples of types of incidents that may occur under the IOGP Life-Saving Rule Hot Work, broken out by actual and potential SIF and incident type. This list is not exhaustive, but it is provided to assist the OSA participant in understanding how incidents may be classified.
IOGP Life-Saving Rule: Hot Work
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Event
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Operation Type |
Incident Description |
Incident Type |
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Potential
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Production |
A welder and pipefitter were in the process of performing hot work in an active gas processing unit without maintaining 100% spark containment. The assigned fire watch was not in position to observe that the sparks were not being adequately contained. No actual incident occurred.
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Hot Work Near Miss |
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Potential
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Production |
Workers were permitted to perform set-up activities on a scaffold to prepare an 8” pipe for welding in an active tank battery.During the set-up and fire blanket installation, the foreman met with an operator to perform a joint job site visit for issuance of a hot work permit. Before finalizing the permit they saw that a worker on the scaffold had started prepping the 8" pipe bevel using an electric de-burring tool. Worker was unaware that the hot work permit had not yet been finalized. No actual incident occurred.
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Hot Work Near Miss |
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Potential
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Production |
Permitted brazing work was being conducted on a pipe in the vicinity of an active production well without a fire watch present. The assigned fire watch had temporarily left the area to talk to another worker. Work stopped and a stand down was held.
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Hot Work Near Miss |
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Actual
|
Production |
Workers were tasked with cutting a sump line pipe to an oil tank without a hot work permit or proper oversight by an operations representative. Residual vapors in the pipe ignited and caused the connected oil tank to explode resulting in a worker fatality.
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Hot Work Explosion |