SPED – October 2011 - SPED in the UK & Ireland

UK Process News

I spent my month locked into Seminars I organised and hosted by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers here in London.

Both were well attended with over 100 paying delegates.

Carbon Capture & Storage attracted overseas delegates as usual with one from the US.  The European Commission and UK Government are both promising funds for full scale pilots and the industry is actively talking of cost reductions of the engineering down the line.  Cost reduction will certainly be the theme to the event that I will organise next year.  The processes are now regarded as stable and flexible enough in operation to be viable.

The second seminar was on Process Safety Management – Are We Doing Enough?

It comes when the basic errors of the huge explosion at Buncefield UK come further into focus.  How lucky we were that it was 6AM on a Sunday morning so there were no injuries in the biggest ever peacetime explosion in Europe.

The busy month for me in my professional body was rounded of by an American VP from BP explaining the response to the Deepwater Horizon incident to an audience that hung on his every word.  From memory 48,000 operatives, 6,500 ships, 65 planes and 16 ROVs and in a small area of sea.  A fantastic logistical response, but with regret after 11 deaths.