RHM 301
Process Safety Management
COURSE SCHEDULE
| Code | Date | Location | price (€)* |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHM 301 | 10-12 Aug 2026 | Online | 2000 |
| RHM 301 | 14-16 Sep 2026 | Oslo | 2700 |
* Prices are subject to VAT and local terms. Ph.D. students, groups (≥ 3 persons) and early bird registrants (8 weeks in advance) are entitled to a DISCOUNT!
COURSE OVERVIEW
If you work in a process plant, you already live inside a PSM system. You follow procedures. You fill out work permits. You call your supervisor before making a change. You participate in toolbox talks and safety briefings. These are not bureaucratic rituals, every one of them is a safety barrier that exists because someone, at some point, understood what happens when that barrier is absent.
The challenge is that most people who work within PSM systems every day have never been shown the full picture of how those systems work, why each element exists, and what happens to the overall system when any single element is weakened or bypassed. That gap between following the system and understanding the system is what this course closes.
Over three days, participants develop a working understanding of PSM from the inside, from the perspective of the operator who is the last line of defense, the supervisor who authorizes the work permit, and the technician who decides whether a change is small enough to skip the paperwork. By the end of the course, participants will understand not just what their PSM requirements are, but why they are designed the way they are, and what it means for safety when they are not followed.
COURSE OUTLINE
5 days
Day 1: The System You Work In
o Why PSM Exists: Incidents in Plants with Procedures, Training & Inspections.
o The Swiss Cheese Model & the Bow Tie from the Inside.
o Barriers: What Makes Them Strong, What Makes Them Weak.
o Safe Operating Limits: Where the Numbers Come From & What They Protect.
o Exercises:
• Exercise 01: Experience Plant Foxtrot's pump seal release and small fire from inside the operator's decision making before the investigation decides who was wrong.
• Exercise 02: Build the Bow Tie for the pump seal incident from scratch and identify every barrier that was supposed to prevent the release.
• Exercise 03: Assess the three safety barriers you personally maintain at work and determine which ones are still protecting anyone.
• Exercise 04: Trace three of Plant Foxtrot's safe operating limits back to the specific hazardous condition each number was placed there to prevent.
Plant Foxtrot Anchor Scenario: All case studies and exercises draw from a process plant that has experienced three preventable incidents, each one the story of a PSM element that quietly stopped working, told from the perspective of the people who were there
Day 2: When the Safety System Depends on You
o Management of Change: What Triggers an MOC & Why RIK Classifications Fail.
o Operating Procedures & Work Permits: The Barriers You Hold in Your Hands.
o Mechanical Integrity: What Equipment Condition Means for Process Safety.
o Incident Investigation: Why Human Error Is Almost Never the Real Answer.
o Exercises:
• Exercise 05: Reconstruct the pump replacement startup incident from the perspective of the technician.
• Exercise 06: Find three deficiencies in Plant Foxtrot's work permit and determine what must be corrected before work can proceed safely.
• Exercise 07: Trace what happened when unreported process stream discoloration was decided not significant enough to escalate.
• Exercise 08: Apply the 5Why method to a PSV lift attributed to operator error and find where the investigation stopped too early
Day 3: Practical Workshop
o Morning Session: Work through three operational scenarios where the safe choice requires both technical knowledge and professional courage, a permit that needs to stop work, a change that looks like RIK but is not, and a near miss that almost was not reported.
o Afternoon Session: Receive a Plant Foxtrot shift record, identify the four small decisions that combined to create a near miss event at shift end, and present the connected analysis to the Safety Manager.
o Individual Quiz Assessment: 20 questions. Minimum passing score: 60%.
INSTRUCTOR
Petro Teach Instructor
The Instructor is a Petroleum Engineer, holds M.Sc in Mechanical Engineering, and is Specialist Natural Gas Engineering. He has over 20 years of hands-on O&G industry experience spanning gas processing, crude treatment, production operations, and technical training across onshore and offshore environments in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
His operational background includes five years as OJT Instructor at production facilities in the Middle East, AGRU Package Leader roles, and extensive experience as Process Engineer across upstream and downstream O&G facilities.
Since 2015 he has been a Senior Lecturer on IFP Training’s international instructor roster, delivering advanced gas processing, thermodynamics, field processing, and operations training to engineers and operators across three continents.
FAQ
DESIGNED FOR
Operations and maintenance professionals who work within PSM programs and want to understand the system they are part of at a deeper level:
o Control Room Operators and Field Operators who implement PSM requirements daily
o Operations Supervisors and Shift Supervisors who authorize work permits and manage operational changes
o Maintenance Technicians and Mechanics who work under PSM permit to work systems
o Safety Representatives and HSE Technicians at field level
o Junior Engineers recently assigned to operations or maintenance roles in PSM regulated facilities
o Any plant professional who follows PSM procedures and wants to understand why they are designed the way they are
Recommended experience: Minimum 2 years working in a process plant or refinery. Prior formal PSM training is not required, operational experience is the only prerequisite.
COURSE LEVEL
Intermediate
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:
o Explain in their own words why PSM exists and how the system as a whole protects against major incidents
o Use the Bow Tie model to explain how barriers work, how they fail, and why every person in the plant is part of at least one barrier
o Identify what triggers a Management of Change (MOC) and explain the consequences of classifying a real change as replacement in kind
o Explain why operating procedures are safety barriers and describe the characteristics that make a procedure effective vs. one that will not be followed in practice
o Describe what a Pre-Start up Safety Review (PSSR) is, when it is required, and what it is protecting against
o Explain the role of mechanical integrity in PSM and describe what a deferred inspection means for the safety system
o Apply a basic root cause analysis approach to distinguish immediate causes from the systemic causes of an operational incident
o Recognize the early warning signs that a PSM system is degrading and understand what to do about them
REGISTER
Registration is now OPEN!
* Prices are subject to VAT and local terms. Ph.D. students, groups (≥ 3 persons) and early bird registrants (8 weeks in advance) are entitled to a DISCOUNT!
For more details and registration please send email to: register@petro-teach.com
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