Page 21 - CCPS Monograph - Refletions of Global Process Safety Leaders

Martin Laycock – Senior Director Manufacturing, Celanese:

Process Safety in China during the Pandemic:

In January news of the virus started to make the headlines during the week before Chinese New
Year. At this time many people across China were travelling for the holiday, and most of the people
travelled to their hometowns away from the major cities. Many petrochemical and mechanical
facilities continued to work, and continued to operate much like any other holiday period. But
during this particular holiday, restrictions on travel and lockdown in the hot areas such as Wuhan
and Hubei actually occurred. So, the net result was that the week after Chinese New Year, there
was a very little travel occurring in China. These restrictions also limited the ability of the people to
travel back to their work city.

We were operating in core operations mode with reduced staff for our operators, supervisors and
maintenance staff, which is normal during a holiday period. The situation gave us an opportunity to
put in place a control plan for the virus and then manage the site with only the employees required
to safely operate. For instance, all projects were suspended and were then restarted in April. This
plan also allowed us to layer back in our key critical resources when we needed to do that. During
the week of Chinese New Year as well, we did still have external audits from the safety
management bureau and the environmental protection bureau. During his visit to the site, the
safety management bureau director for the area discussed the need to continue to audit and to
make sure that the chemical industry continues to operate safely. He made this statement just
after Chinese New Year, when there was maximum uncertainty, and maximum fear about
quarantine in China. Even though it was a difficult time, we had to make sure no matter what we
didn’t drop our focus from process safety.

20