Abstract for: Occupational Safety Dynamics in Onshore LNG Receiving Terminals

In onshore LNG receiving terminals (LNGRTs), any unsafe condition and/or act that may cause fire and explosion during LNG processes may lead to major occupational accidents endangering people, equipment and the environment. Hence, to prevent accidents, identifying unsafe condition and/or act is crucial. LNGRTs are complex systems, therefore; in this study, based on system dynamics approach, a dynamic simulation model is developed to unravel the dynamic feedback structures that operate over time and create unsafe conditions and/or acts. In order to penetrate the structure of the system, besides literature review, fieldwork is done in a major onshore LNGRT. The model structure comprises the activities of LNG processing, maintenance, repairing, and employee training. The management’s time allocation decision under specific resource constraints drives the interactions among these system components. The model is run for 5 years and system behavior is analyzed with respect to several scenarios and policies. These analyses reveal that possibility of major occupational accidents increases with decreasing labor time for maintenance and training, which increases unsafe conditions and acts, respectively. The model can be used as an experimental platform to test the influence of several other factors on safety, such as schedule pressure, overwork, equipment reliability, turnover rates.