UTP Hosts First Process Safety Conference in Malaysia (3 November 2015)
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), one of the most prominent private universities in Malaysia, recently co-organised the second CCPS Global Summit on Process Safety with the Centre for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), an Industry Technology Alliance of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). It was the first global process safety conference conducted in Malaysia and the second in the Asia Pacific region.
The three-day summit was launched by Deputy Secretary General (Policy & International), Ministry of Human Resources, Dato’ Mohd Sahar Darusman, on 3 November. He represented Minister of Human Resources, Dato’ Sri Richard Riot Anak Jaem.
As a leading member in CCPS, PETRONAS has taken leadership initiatives to support the event and hence became the master sponsor of the second CCPS Global Summit on Process Safety. The summit was supported by major sponsorships from Acutech Consulting, Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries, PSRG Asia Pacific Pte Limited, Reliance Industries, Air Products and Chemicals, DuPont, Halliburton and CGE Risk Management Solutions.
This summit was one of the significant outputs from the strategic alliance established between UTP and CCPS that had materialised through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) earlier. The collaboration was aimed to enhance scientific, technical and engineering competencies in the areas of process safety.
UTP Vice Chancellor Datuk Ir (Dr) Abdul Rahim Hashim said in regards to the MoU, the university, through its Centre of Advanced Process Safety (CAPS), was proud to given an opportunity to collaborate with CCPS, the top process safety centre recognised by industries worldwide.
In July last year, UTP established CAPS, as a platform to pursue knowledge and expertise through the advancement of process safety. The centre’s vision was to become a recognised institution for reference and a partner of choice in process safety in Malaysia and Asia-Pacific by 2025.
The centre, headed by Professor Dr Azmi Mohd Shariff, began its research in process safety in 2003. Since then, a number of postgraduate students had graduated in the areas of risk assessment, inherent safety, fire hazard analysis, toxicity and process safety management. A number of journals and conference papers had been published in those areas.
CAPS had completed a number of industrial projects and conducted a series of short courses in areas of quantitative risk assessment and electrical safety and operability review.
CAPS was appointed by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health Malaysia to conduct a regulatory impact assessment to revise and improve the Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards (CIMAH) Regulations 1996 by including the elements of process safety management.
CAPS is working together with the Chemical Engineering Department of UTP to offer the Masters of Science in process safety next year.
“The signing of this MoU is another important milestone for UTP, as the university is one of the very few selected universities in the world to have such collaboration with CCPS. It provides an important platform in our effort to build up a mechanism to establish new process safety initiatives especially in Malaysia and generally in the Asia Pacific region, in order to help industries to develop tools and practices to keep workplaces and communities safer”, he said.
Datuk Abdul Rahim who is also the Global Summit chairman said UTP was honoured to co-host such a prestigious event that serves as a catalyst to strengthen the strategic alliance between UTP and CCPS. “This event helps UTP to position itself in process safety area and create opportunities for strategic linkages and partnership with industries, governmental bodies and international institutions,” he said.
CCPS Executive Director Shakeel Kadri said, “This event provides a broad platform for process safety leaders and experts from industry; government, including regulatory authorities, and academia to share the latest advances in process safety.”
With the theme ‘CCPS Process Safety Vision 20/20’, the summit drew more than 300 participants and 75 organisations, from more than 10 countries, along with exhibitors from industries, including oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical. The theme demonstrated on the example of perfect process safety that is championed by industry which was driven by five tenets of culture, standards, competency, management systems and lessons learned. It was enhanced by community passion and four global societal themes - to enhance stakeholder knowledge, collaborate with full responsibilities, harmonisation of standards and meticulous verification in matters of process safety.
Outlining all similar features as organised in the first Global Summit on Process Safety in Mumbai, India in December last year, this time the summit offered additional impactful events such as pre-conference courses, international regulators’ panel discussion on process safety regulations and academia panel discussion on process safety.
On hand to coordinate the three-day programme were CCPS Technical Director, Louisa A. Nara, CCPS Asia Pacific Regional Manager, Umesh Dhake and CCPS Business Development Manager, Shami Nayak. On the final day of the summit, Nara outlined actions taken by the Leadership Forum on Process Safety, as well as the outcomes of the various panel discussions.
