Commitment
“Shell chemicals companies are committed to achieving continuous environmental performance improvements.”
Spills performance
The Chemicals Class of Business reported four spills to land or water in 2006, with a total volume of product spilled of some 2.7 tonnes. This is a reduction in both the number and volume of spills compared to 2005 when six spills resulted in a total of 4.2 tonnes of product spilled. Chemicals Manufacturing recorded 43 spills to land or water in 2006 with a total spill volume of almost 82 tonnes. This was a substantial reduction over performance in 2005 when, as a result of 49 incidents, 368 tonnes of product were spilled.
The chart below shows combined data for the Chemicals Class of Business and Chemicals Manufacturing.
Target: a 50% reduction in spills by 2007, relative to the previous five-year average
† Combined data for Chemicals Class of Business (responsible for chemicals customer service and marketing activities) and Chemicals Manufacturing
* A spill is any unexpected loss to land or water that exceeds 100 kilogrammes, unless it is wholly contained and, therefore, does not reach the environment.
How are we improving our spills performance?
To reach the aspiration of zero process safety incidents in Chemicals Manufacturing, there has been a focused effort on strengthening Process Safety management. As an essential part of the Group’s HSSE Management system, all Shell facilities have a risk management framework in place for their operations. The risk management framework ensures sufficient HSSE controls/barriers are in place to mitigate any operational upsets that may cause spills.
Incident reporting also plays a key part in spill management. Through the incident reporting and investigation process, any unsafe acts or conditions can be tracked and timely corrective actions initiated to prevent further incidents.
In addition, the on-going implementation of Hearts & Minds and focus on the Shell Golden Rules, that emphasis health, safety and environment excellence, continue to support improvement efforts.
