An Interview with Gustavo Correa on Process Safety

The Latin American Conference on Process Safety will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on September 11-13, 2018, with a pre-conference course scheduled for September 10, 2018. Co-organized by ARPEL, this conference is part of CCPS' family of Global Congress on Process Safety and is part of CCPS's worldwide effort to prevent major accidents through promoting lifelong learning as well as continual improvement in process safety. 

We spoke with conference chair member Gustavo Correa about his work as a process safety professional, the changes he's seen in the field, and how process safety will impact industry in the future.

How is your work as a process safety professional critical to your particular job or the industry where you work? What are the most important skills a process safety professional should have?

In my job, leaders are very committed to process safety, and this situation facilitates my task. Some process safety performance goals are included in company annual objectives. Management support is fundamental to implement any type of process safety initiative.

There are many skills that a process safety professional must have, but I mention two that, in my point of view, are essential: teamwork (given that in process safety nothing can be done alone) and resilience. It is important to have a lot of tolerance for frustration, to face and overcome problems, and to persevere.

What message would you like the audience to take away from the conference?

Latin American process safety conferences have greatly improved both the level of participation and the quality of their presentations. An important message that the audience should take away is that we must continue with the improvement process that Latin America industries are carrying out to raise the level of process safety. It requires a lot of effort, but we are on the right track.

What changes have you seen in process safety in Latin America over the past 10 years?

Changes of recent years were significant, from new government regulations to universities including process safety in their curricula. Many companies have invested a lot of money in making their processes safer, as well as improving employees' skills. The increase in Latin American companies associated with CCPS is an indicator of the interest in process safety.

How do you see process safety impacting industry over the next five years?

In the middle term, I believe that Latin American industries will continue investing in their processes and in the training of their employees. Perhaps the substantial change that is manifesting is the integration of the Latin American industries with universities and the communities near their facilities.

Register for the 8th CCPS Latin American Conference on Process Safety.

Gustavo Correa

Gustavo Correa holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, and a Master’s degree in Petroleum Industrialization from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has over 30 years of experience in the petroleum industry, in YPF S.A., where he held various positions in the Operation, Technical, and HSE fields. Currently, he is the HSE Upstream Manager at YPF S.A. Read More