Accidents in chemical and petrochemical sectors and a case study on Petkim

The materials used and stored in the production process of petrochemical and chemical sector, which provides feedstock to the several industries, are flammable, explosive and poisonous. Therefore, accidents in the form of fire, explosion and chemical release are experienced frequently in these sectors and the result of the accidents could be catastrophic for the environment, human life and material loss. Petkim is the primary representative of petrochemical sector in Turkey. Petkim, producing the most petrochemical product with its sole integrated petrochemical complex in Turkey and its product range over 50, caters raw material demands of various industries in Turkey such as construction, agriculture, automotive, electric, electronic, packaging, textile, medicine, dye, detergent and cosmetics. A major accident likely to occur in Petkim may have devastating impacts, in the first place, on workers, local community, environment and ecology as well as on industrial production and Turkish economy.In this study, in order to find out implications of a major accident likely to occur in Petkim, risk assessment for factories of Petkim is done with the help of the risk matrix model designed. The studies related with the risk analysis and risk assessment for petrochemical sector are widely available in international literature. However, there are studies on risk analysis and risk assessments of various sectors in Turkey, there is not any study for the risk existing in petrochemical sector. This study is important as it is the first example of the risk assessments which is applied to the production process and factories of petrochemical sector in Turkey.It further analyses the policies and applications of Petkim, which has an important place (role) in Turkish economy and industry, for the prevention of accidents by assessing the comparison of international standards and similar company applications in the view of risk analysis to find out the most risky factory in Petkim and the kind and extend of the accidents are discussed.