Why is the year 2011 an accident-prone year?

On July 16, 2011, PetroChina Dalian Petrochemical Company broke fire and smoke blew up. (Photo by Cai Yongjun)

Sinochem New Network News The end of the year, all walks of life are conducting inventory. Inventory gains, inventory losses; inventory experience, inventory lessons. As a pillar of the national economy, the petrochemical industry, in the coming 2011, will have to count the number of safety incidents that have occurred during the year.

On January 26, a fire broke out at the warehouse of a paint factory in Shiyan, Hubei Province.

On February 23, Wuxi Chemical Co., Ltd. in Jiangsu Province was involved in a fire explosion.

On March 13, Hebei Weiyuan Biological Chemicals exploded.

On April 26, a titanium tetrachloride leak occurred in the southwestern Guizhou province.

On May 2, the Cyclohexanone plant in the polyamide plant of Zhejiang Juhua Group caught fire.

On June 18, Jiangsu Weikai technology oven exploded, causing 5 dead and 13 injuries;

On July 11th, CNOOC Huizhou Refinery Branch suddenly fired.

On August 29, PetroChina Dalian Petrochemical Company broke fire.

On September 27, a leak occurred in the Shanghai BASF ** device.

On October 9, Daqing Oilfield Company's office building burst into flames.

On November 19, a deflagration incident occurred at Shandong Xintai United Chemical Co., Ltd., resulting in 15 deaths and 4 injuries.

On December 6th, the building of the Shandong Lime Chemical Factory fire broke out.

......

Every month.

Explosions, fires, casualties, and leakage have become the disgraceful keywords for this year's petrochemical industry. Why do chemical industry safety incidents occur frequently?


The number of accidents in one year exceeded 3 years After undergoing the “Eleventh Five-Year” leap-forward development, the output value of China's chemical industry has ranked first in the world. The financial turmoil that swept the world was not an obstacle but an acceleration of the expansion of the industry. However, while the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" has achieved brilliant results, it has also planted the seeds of security risks, and it will soon bear fruit in the first year of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan".

According to relevant statistics of the Production Supervision and Administration Bureau, as of December 20, 2011, the safety accidents in the petrochemical industry throughout the country this year, including the use of hazardous chemicals, have exceeded 500 accidents, and from 2008 to 2010 In the three years, this number is about 300. The number of security accidents in the first year of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” exceeded the sum of the last three years of the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, and the security incidents presented a severe situation of sharp rise.

Looking back at this year's major petrochemical safety incidents, we can use a few words to summarize: fires, casualties, heavy pollution. What is especially worthy of caution is the frequent accidents of large state-owned enterprises.

At about 4:10 am on July 11th, the mechanical seals of the reformer bottom oil pump of the reforming unit of the aromatics complex of the CNOOC Huizhou Refinery Subsidiary Co., Ltd. leaked and ignited. A few minutes later, heavy smoke blew up and the fire ignited more than 100 meters high. Although CNOOC’s own fire engines arrived on the scene for more than 10 minutes, the fire was too heavy to hold up. The fire vehicles in Huizhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Guangzhou were gradually rescued, adding up to more than 60 vehicles. The fire extinguishing operation was not completed until 5:30 pm that day.

On July 16, CNPC Dalian Petrochemical Company’s atmospheric and vacuum distillation unit caused fire due to heat exchanger leakage. The fire burned for nearly 6 hours. The fire caused most of the atmospheric and vacuum distillation units, which were about 15 meters high, to be scrapped. Persons involved in the survey said that the fire that caused the fire was its three-tier heat exchanger. The flange of the heat exchanger may have leaked oil. After two minor explosions, it was carried. And just a month or so later, this company, at about 10:00 am on August 29, a tank that can store thousands of tons of diesel oil in the oil tank area suddenly fired, smoke on the spot rolled, and the fire was connected because The bursting of the pipeline between the two tanks.

In September, there were three fires in Shanghai Secco Petrochemical Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Xinyi Chemical Plant, and Sinopec Shanghai Gaoqiao Branch.

In 2011, the largest petrochemical safety accident related to casualties was probably due to an explosion from Shandong Xintai United Chemical Co., Ltd., which Shandong Union Chemicals Group Co., Ltd. had just acquired. At about 2pm on November 19th, the company's melamine plant deflagrated when it was overhauled after shutdown, and the deflagration device was a bio-liquid condenser of a melamine unit. At that time, the company was organizing personnel to overhaul the equipment, so the sudden explosion of equipment caused a large number of casualties. A total of 15 people were killed and 4 were injured in the accident.

In the last year of the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan”, the explosion of the petrochemical pipeline of Dalian Petrochemical caused 15 million tons of crude oil to pour into Bohai Bay, causing the largest coastal environmental disaster in China in recent years. Unexpectedly, this is only the beginning. In the first year of the next "12th Five-Year Plan", the same environmental disaster came one after another.

On June 4, 2011, an oil spill accident occurred in the Penglai 19-3 oilfield, China's largest offshore oilfield, jointly developed by ConocoPhillips and China National Offshore Oil Corporation. The State Oceanic Administration's monitoring results on June 13 showed that the oil film coverage area has reached 158 square kilometers. By July 13, ConocoPhillips had announced that the amount of oil spilled had reached 1,500 barrels. Although the degree of damage to the ecological environment of the Bohai Sea and its follow-up impact have not yet been definitively determined, the livelihoods of the people who depend on marine aquaculture on the coast have indeed been affected. Comparing with this environmental disaster, on July 12th, the crude oil landing accident that occurred at the central platform of the Zhongnai 36-1 oil field in the Zhonghai Oilfield in the Bohai Bay of the Bohai Sea appeared to be worth mentioning.

Chemical safety production focuses on detail management. The picture shows the safety warning mirrors everywhere in Luxi Chemical Group Co., Ltd. (Reporter Zhang Yushe)

Blindly burying hidden accidents Overspeed accidents are common on highways, and speeding development has also become one of the major sources of major chemical safety accidents this year. Xintai United Chemical Industry's “11·19” accident was a tragic case that was typically slammed into deadlines and speeding.

On February 2, 2010, United Chemicals acquired the Tai De Fertilizer Plant and Taian Shuangfeng Fertilizer Co., Ltd., and established Xintai United Chemicals Co., Ltd. Xintai United Chemical began to overhaul and technically upgrade the original production facilities in April 2010. The annual output of 70,000 tons of synthetic ammonia plant and the annual output of 100,000 tons of urea plant have passed the inspection and technical transformation. They were put into trial production in July 2010.

After receiving less than one year from the original factory, United Chemicals immediately announced on November 5, 2010 that Xintai United Chemical intends to invest 30,000 tons/year of melamine projects in order to lengthen its product chain. The time for the completion of this project and its test conditions is the third quarter of 2011. However, in less than half a year, UPEC again announced in May this year that “Sintai’s joint rationalization of chemical construction during the construction period of the project was completed. On May 27, 2011, it started trial production and produced the first batch of qualified products. Melamine products". This means that the production line originally planned to be put into operation in the third quarter was advanced several months, and the construction period was shortened by nearly half.

The construction period was advanced, but the corresponding equipment did not fully follow. According to insiders of the company, the equipment purchased in Xintai City was unqualified during the pressure test. The company’s procurement department turned a blind eye to this and just wanted to move the equipment to the company as soon as possible and start production as soon as possible after the equipment was finished, so that the equipment was After the equipment is completed, it will continue to fail until it becomes a disaster. In addition, the joint maintenance of the headquarters of the company's chemical companies to maintain the entire door is also repeatedly compressed. In recent years, the operation of United Chemical has not been satisfactory. As a traditional chemical company, the profitability of the joint chemical industry has been declining in recent years. In 2008, its net profit was 147 million yuan. In 2009, it decreased to 64,842,200 yuan, a decrease of 127.19%. After the acquisition of the Loude Chemical Fertilizer Plant and Taian Shuangfeng Fertilizer, the net profit slightly increased in 2010. The reason why United Chemicals let the project run intensively is precisely the great expectation of this project. In the third quarterly report of UCI this year, some securities companies had predicted that the company's net profit for the whole year will increase by 50% to 80%. In particular, it is proposed that Xintai, a wholly-owned subsidiary, will jointly complete the 30,000-ton melamine project. Will increase company profits.

However, the result is that the speed is not up to speed.

Similarly, CNOOC, which has been working on offshore oil development, realized its dream of landing in the “11th Five-Year Plan” and completed its first large-scale refinery project in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, with an annual refining capacity of 12 million tons, which is currently the largest in the domestic single series. Refinery. In addition, the second and third-phase expansion plans for the Huizhou refinery have also been formulated. By 2015, the refining capacity will reach 22 million tons, and by 2020 it will further increase to 40 million tons. From the perspective of construction technology and production technology, Huili's indicators are among the top in the industry. The refinery has 8 sets of equipment reaching world-scale scale, and 11 sets of equipment have adopted advanced patented technologies at home and abroad. In November 2010, Hui Lian also won the highest award for international excellence in project management - the Gold Award for Extra Large Projects issued by the 24th IPMA International Project Management Conference. This award is called the "Oscar Award" for international project management. The Huilian project is the world's first award-winning refinery project. With the escalation of the fire on July 24 last year and July 11 this year, CNOOC’s ability to control large-scale refinery units has been questioned. Hui Lian executives also had to admit after the accident: “Refining is a new area and a new industry that CNOOC has entered, and the ability to control it does not keep up. Many things need to be explored. After the accident, we are seriously looking for the cause. It is design. Unscientific, poor quality of construction, or defects in management? The accident taught us that we must learn something smarter."

What is more dangerous than speeding is one of the basic factors that petrochemical companies are most dependent on for survival. If there is a problem with safety management, it is inevitable that safety accidents will occur in re-qualified companies.

On November 24, the State Council approved China National Petroleum Corporation's four accident investigations and handling results since July 16, 2010, and gave it to 64 responsible persons, including PetroChina chairman and party leader Jiang Jiemin. Party discipline, government discipline, 14 persons suspected of committing crimes were transferred to judicial organs for investigation of criminal responsibility. Among them, the general manager of Dalian Petrochemical Company, Jiang Fan, has also become a local senior executive of the PetroChina system after being removed from the original general manager of Sinopec Jilin Petrochemical Company in 2005 after being involved in a major safety incident. It is not so much a logical punishment as it is a punishment of “having to be forced” or “not punishing the world without thanks”. The company’s four security incidents took place one after another in a short period of time, and the oil company’s security management network was shot into a sieve.

What is even more instructive is that the 2011 “16·16” fire at Dalian Petrochemical happened exactly within 10 days after the full shutdown of the entire new production area. Industry insiders said that such a safety incident occurred after the overhaul was either an overhaul or a failure to rule out production risks or production irregularities. Whatever the situation, it shows that the management of the company has a big problem. An internal technician of Dalian Petrochemical Company said: “How can accidents of similar nature occur so intensively? It is no wonder that the public is shocked because we are not very understanding.”

In addition to business management problems, the relevant government departments also have the responsibility for supervision. The storm caused by the wave of anti-wave boosting of the Dalian Fujia Dahua PX Project involved the management of dereliction of duty by the relevant local government departments. According to public information, the Fujia Dahua PX project was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in December 2005, and the project started construction in October 2007. The device construction was completed in November 2008 and the trial production started in May 2009. In June 2009, the project was officially put into production. However, there is one detail that deserves attention: The Fujia Dahua PX project has expanded its production scale. The EIA report of the project shows that the project was originally submitted for approval of a 450,000 tons/year aromatics project, instead of the aromatics project that the company advertised outside of the country can produce 700,000 tons of PX per year. This was also confirmed by the 2005 review of the Fujia Dahua PX project by the Ministry of Land and Resources, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the former State Environmental Protection Administration. In September 2009, the National Development and Reform Commission approved “the adjustment of the project construction volume to 700,000 tons/year”, but before this, the project has been put into production. Moreover, it was not until January 7, 2011, that is, more than one year after the Fujia Dahua PX project was put into operation, the Liaoning Province Safety Supervision Bureau completed acceptance of the project and agreed that the joint project of 700,000 tons/year of aromatics would be put into production. From this, it can be seen that the management loopholes that exist at the time of border construction and even trial construction are still in existence.

Industry experts said that many safety accidents have shown that there are still many potential safety hazards in the upstream and downstream industries of the petrochemical industry in China.

Wang Rujun, director of the Safety Production Office of the China Petrochemical Federation, believes that in all safety accidents in the petrochemical industry in recent years, accidents caused by defects in equipment, facilities, technical design, and safety facilities also account for a considerable proportion, but the implementation system is not strict. The proportion of all types of "three violations" (illegal, disciplinary, and non-compliance) accident deaths accounted for the largest proportion, among which the chemical industry's internal special operations accidents are mostly caused by failure of safety management.


The profound reflection on the severe safety production situation in the management of the petrochemical industry has led to reflections from various parties.

Li Zhengxian, deputy director of the China Pesticide Industry Association, said that in companies only heard that the EIA did not pass and rarely heard that the security review failed. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to increasing the proportion of safety qualification examinations in the access conditions. At the same time improving the industry's enterprise exit mechanism is also an important measure to safeguard the security development of the industry. How to allow enterprises that do not have safe production conditions to withdraw from the industry needs careful study, so that some enterprises that cannot achieve safety standards can withdraw from the industry and transition.

Liu Dongsheng, deputy secretary-general of China Chlor-Alkali Industry Association, put forward two opinions on the safe production of the chlor-alkali industry. First, as the industry expanded too quickly but safety management could not keep up, the company's security risks are increasing. Some newly-built companies have dug several managers from some old companies in the past. The result is a decline in the safety management of old companies, and the safety management of new companies cannot keep up. Second, the chlor-alkali industry has not formed a good safety accident information statistics and communication platform, and accident information is difficult to obtain. The security professional committees that have been established have set up liaison officers in many enterprises and want to collect statistics on accidents. However, the difficulties are still very great. Some companies are not very cooperative and hope to receive the support of the State Administration of Work Safety.

Ren Fucong, secretary general of the China Chemical Reagent Industry Association, said that there are not many major accidents in the chemical reagent industry, but there are many minor accidents. From the software point of view, the safety management knowledge of the employees and managers is weak, the safety rules and regulations are not perfect, the safety precautions handling plan is not clear, and the operator training opportunities are relatively rare. From the hardware point of view, the production equipment is simple and wasteful. There are many equipments, and the situation of serious defects is very serious. The phenomenon of mixed raw materials in the factory area and warehouses is also serious. This is the cause of security incidents. Ren Fucong suggested that in the past, after a company's accident, it would often take a little money to complete the incident. In the future, it should strengthen the punishment for accident liability. Penalty at the end of children off, killing a hundred. At the same time, there are many companies that produce unlicensed products in the industry, so they should often carry out joint inspections by departments and resolutely ban uncertified production and operations.

Chen Minghai, secretary-general of the China Petroleum and Chemical Automation Application Association, said that many companies' automation equipment does not need to review its security. The key processes of chemical companies are equipped with chains, and they can automatically stop all vehicles in the event of an unknown or unexpected situation. However, it is understood that more than 90% of companies have dismantled the chain due to false positives, false positives, and other issues. Why are false positives? Either the measuring instrument quality is not reliable or the instrument is not suitable for use in this process system. Most safety accidents are related to the monitoring conditions and imperfect monitoring methods. Therefore, the functional safety issues of current instrumentation and other automation equipments require meticulous investigation. For example, which instrument in the power supply system should be changed, and how long it should be changed, this issue requires a large-scale investigation to establish a database for analysis. It also requires a lot of manpower, material and financial resources.

Li Yongwu, president of the China Petrochemical Federation, recently issued an appeal that petrochemical safety has become an important risk factor for the development of the industry. The industry should organize special research on safety production, supervise relevant petrochemical enterprises to earnestly perform their duties, establish safe production awareness, and improve safety production management techniques. .

On November 12, a safety accident occurred in a chemical plant in Wenzhou, killing one worker. The picture shows the scene of the accident. (photo by Ho Chau-ho)