Tank accident 1 – Sudden onset of localized severe convective weather, with smoke emerging from the oil measurement port

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This post was last edited by Chuyun Waichao on 2018-8-31 at 12:10. An accident occurred due to sudden localized severe convective weather, with smoke emerging from the oil measurement port. The details of the incident are as follows: At 18:37 on April 19, 2010, Hu, a metering officer at the Wangjiagou Petroleum Commercial Reserve Depot of the Northwest Sales Company, and Dai, a metering officer at the Urumqi Oil and Gas Transmission Branch of Western Pipeline, were carrying out metering procedures at tank TG105. At 18:51, the weather in the Wangjiagou area changed suddenly, with hail falling heavily. At this time. Dai, a meter reader at the Urumqi oil and gas transmission branch of the Western Pipeline Company, continued with the metering tasks. At 18:54, smoke suddenly appeared from the oil measurement port; worker Hu immediately shut down the port and, together with Dai, called for help while evacuating. Upon receiving the call, the police and fire brigade of the Xinjiang Service Center, the 6th Fire Brigade of Xinjiang Oilfield Company, and the city’s fire department rushed to the scene one after another. They used fixed fire-fighting equipment and mobile fire trucks to spray water for cooling, and after 1 hour, the smoking stopped. After confirming that the hazards had been eliminated, the oil depot resumed normal operations at 0:00 on April 20. Cause of the accident: While carrying out measurement and transfer operations on the large tank, the workers were suddenly confronted by localized severe convective weather conditions (strong winds accompanied by hail). This led to the accumulation of a large amount of static electricity on the top of the oil tank. As the measurement and transfer process was in progress and the tank’s sampling ports were open, this large amount of static electricity released its energy instantly within those ports, triggering an explosion of the gas mixture above the floating deck and resulting in a flash explosion. Lessons learned from the accident and measures taken: In the future, it is necessary to strengthen monitoring and inspection activities in tank areas and storage zones, as well as to check the condition of anti-static facilities. Special attention should be paid to ensuring proper anti-static measures during material transfer and loading/unloading processes, as well as in conditions of abnormal weather. The relevant provisions of the \"Code for Static Electricity Safety in Liquid Petroleum Products\" (GB13348-2009) must be strictly followed, and the flow rate of materials should be controlled to prevent accidents caused by static electricity. At the same time, when the wind force is above level 5, operators must not carry out related operations ； Operators must not work near the tank during thunderstorm conditions. By drawing inferences from one example, what else should we pay attention to?