Analysis of the Major Accidents in Oil Refineries Using Hfacs-Ogi: Case Study of U.S.a., 1995-2015

In process safety, there are always opportunities to understand and learn lessons from incidents from the industry. Though human factor contribution are often analysed, the influences of external factors, regarding regulations and administration supervisions are hardly considered during accident analysis. This study used Human factor analysis and classification system for the oil and gas industry (HFACS-OGI) to analysed 94 fatal incidents that occurred in U.S. oil refineries between 1995 and 2015. The result showed that HFACS-OGI is an appropriate tool for categorising oil refineries accidents and helped in identifying major characteristics of these events. Furthermore, a strong link was identified between external factors, organisational influences, and unsafe acts. The role of external factors was identified as significant in the oil refineries accident prevention.