Process Safety Performance Metrics

The refining and petrochemical manufacturing industries are committed to protecting the health and safety of our workers, contractors, and neighbors, as well as the environment in which we operate. Our members continuously look for opportunities to enhance safety and recognize that an effective means to improve process safety performance is to learn from each other. 

A process safety performance indicators program provides useful information for driving improvement.  The program, when acted upon, contributes to reducing risks of major hazards by identifying the underlying causes and taking action to prevent recurrence. 

A Tier 1 process safety event is defined by ANSI/API RP 754, Process Safety Performance Indicators for the Refining and Petrochemical Industries. This standard is available to the public in a read-only format on the American Petroleum Institute website: http://publications.api.org/    

The nature of the data that statistically are considered rare events, such as serious injuries or fatalities, means that year-to-year comparisons are not a statistically significant indicator of real change and can lead to premature conclusions.

The ability to draw an accurate conclusion, especially when looking at individual companies, is best accomplished by observing statistics over a longer period of time to help mitigate the effects of possible outliers.