Listed with other top experts in: 

2010 to

(Undisclosed Consulting Company)

Proprietor / The Principal Consultant

Expert is the owner of this business which has been set up to provide Expert's services in the fields of Accident Investigation, Process Safety and Risk Assessment.

1981 to 2010

Entec UK Limited

Environment Policy & Safety

Technical Director - Risk and Safety

Expert started as a Senior Scientist at Cremer & Warner London in 1981. He was recruited to develop dense gas dispersion models and other mathematical models of hazardous consequences folowing loss of containment accidents in oil, gas and chemical plants. He also developed experties in the identification of potential accident sequences and assessing the frequency of accidents. He became leader of the risk assessment group in 1987 and a Director in 1988. After a series of takeovers Cremer & Warner became part of Entec in 1993 and was fully integrated in 1995. Expert took on additional roles including Director of the French subsidiary from 1990 to 1993 and the Quality Director role for Entec from 1995 to 2005. He was responsible for a team of up to 23 safety and risk specialists carrying out a variety of consultancy projects principally in the oil, gas and chemical industries, for both projects and operating assets. Most of the work resulted from the introduction of requirements for Safety Cases offshore and Safety Reports onshore. Expert instigated the integration of Human Factors with the Technical Aspects of Process Safety and was able to assist the psychologists based upon his experience of accident investigation and the 1994 Pembroke Cracker incident in particular. This led to the development of the Staffing Assessment tool known as the Entec method. He also developed risk assessment in new areas, in particular helping the UK Home Office develop a risk based toolkit for assessing the need for firefighting resources (firefighters, equipment and premises) based on risk to life and property. His work on process safety led to accident prevention and a demonstrable reduction in casualties in accidents that did occur.

1974 to 1981

Department of Environment (UK Government)

Hydraulics Research Station

Higher Scientific Officer

Expert was a member of the Overseas Development Unit which carried out research and assisted in projects designed to assist developing countries improve their use of water resources whether for drinking, irrigation, navigation or hydro-electric power. His two main areas of interest were: 1. Modelling Salt Water Intrusion in Estuaries to determine suitable locations for drinking water and irrigation water intakes and the impact of increased water abstraction on the interface between salt and fresh water. This interface could change position by a hundred miles between wet and dry seasons in some tropical rivers. In some cases it was necessary to assess the impact of multi-purpose schemes, such as major dams designed to produce hydropower, and provide water for irrigation, drinking water, control water quality and assure adequate depths for river navigation. Expert carried out risk assessments on the likelihood of failure to deliver on any of these outputs. 2. Investigating the causes and measures to control soil salinisation which caused severe loss of production in many agricultural areas of the tropics and subtropics. This involved field studies and modelling. Salinisation is increased when water tables are high, evapotranspiration rates are high and there is insufficient irrigation. Expert's role was to develop models of drainage and irrigation showing how the depth and spacing of drains controlled the water table for different soil types (permeability) and irrigation rates. He was awarded his MSc for a comparison of the use of finite difference and finite element models of flow in porous media based on his irrigation and drainage models. All the code was written from scratch without library routines to ensure maximum speed and efficiency when computer power was rather limited.

Expert developed significant Project Management and self reliance skills whilst working on these projects particularly when in the field where practical solutions had to be found to any problems arising in areas which lacked any modern technology.

• He provided overall technical, safety and environmental assurance and peer review for a $1.5 billion project during the FEED and permitting stage. The project involved an initegrated gasification plant, pre-combustion CO2 removal, combined cycle gas turbine power generation, CO2 compression, pipeline transfer offshore, platform modifications for use with CO2 to enable Enhanced Oil Recovery and modification of the platform processing to allow for CO2 injection, modified product flow rate and composition.
• He has provided safety advice on numerous LNG projects, including both LNG liquefaction and export terminals as well as import and re-gasification plants. The advice started with issues of safe plant layout, spill prevention and collection measures and usually led on to final conclusions based on QRA that he managed which could be used for practical advice on design accident loads, fire protection, escape and evacuation. He also dealt with satisfying risk acceptance criteria for both major accidents affecting the public offsite or domino risk to adjacent sites.
• He worked with developers of brownfield sites to consider how developments could be modified to ensure that future users or occupants would not be subjected to unacceptable levels of risk from major accident sites or pipelines. He had to take account of the views of the Heakth & Safety Executive, codified in a rigid system that did not consider some of the features that mitigate risks. He was able to propose variations on hazardous substance consents or modifications to their conditions that would enable reduced risks to be used in the assessment of risks to the developments, thus achieving consents for developments that would otherwise be rejected.
• He assisted a bulk liquids storage tank farm operator develop the facility to store larger quantities of flammable liquids whilst reducing offsite risks. As the site became a top tier COMAH site under the Seveso 2 Directive he then assisted with the development of a more formal safety management system addressing major accident hazards including the Major Accident Prevention Policy and the major Procedures required to implement it. He carried out the hazard identification and risk assessment under this policy. He was then commissioned to carry out regular audits of the sites and reviews of the system to ensure compliance and to improve the accident prevention and mitigation measures.
• He investigated the details and background circumstances of the 1994 major accident at the Pembroke Cracker on behalf of Texaco. He examined the safety management system, the actions of the operators on the day and the design and management of the plant to determine the root causes and identify where there were gaps in the arrangements for hazard identification, risk assessment and control, where designs could be improved and the training of the operators upgraded. More importantly he was able to help the copmpany rebut much of the HSE prosecution case that followed the accident and ensure that the real lessons of the accident were learned. He assisted with a presentation of the learning points from the accident which was delivered to a meeting of all UK refinery managers or their safety representatives at the Institute of Petroleum after the court case was concluded.