Oil company completes more than $800,000 of safety improvements after workplace incident

The largest oil company retail network in Australia has completed more than $800,000 of work health and safety undertakings after two workers were treated in hospital following an incident at the company’s Banksmeadow fuel terminal.

Since the incident in July 2013, Caltex Australia Petroleum Pty Ltd has spent more than $200,000 on rectifications at its Banksmeadow terminal and on its national terminal network. This included improvements to isolation standards, work procedures and training for permit to work, as well as management of change, emergency management, and delivering improved hazard awareness training for all workers and contractors.

In addition to these rectifications, Caltex committed more than $600,000 on a number of strategies to deliver wider benefits to the industry and the community.

These strategies included development of a mobile contractor safety management app to help businesses manage the health and safety of their workforce. The free Onsite Safety app enables businesses to connect with their workforce remotely through a smartphone or tablet. It includes checklists for activities such as working at heights, working with chemicals, electrical work, confined spaces, using plant and using vehicles on construction sites.

A series of webinars has also been produced, with industry experts speaking on topics such as managing organisational change, implementing drug and alcohol programs, developing process safety KPIs, and adopting the Global Harmonisation System requirements for classifying and labelling chemicals.

Benefits to the community include funding seven fire-fighters from Fire & Rescue NSW to undertake advanced petrochemical fire response training in Texas, USA. Caltex has also helped FRNSW develop e-learning courses to teach fire-fighters how to respond to incidents in the petrochemical industry.

Read more about enforceable undertakings.

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