Health & Safety Update (April 2010)
LPG Pipe work Replacement Inspection Campaign
Your LPG installation is going to be inspected...The HSE has a
major campaign to improve safety at bulk LPG installations. The
purpose is to resolve any issues at sites, either through poor
standards or due to an unwillingness to provide information for a
current survey or take replacement action required. The inspections
will also provide a basis of evidence for determining priorities
and resource needs in the future.
Background
There have been several incidents where LPG has leaked from
buried metallic pipe work. There have been explosions over the last
20 years or so, one in which nine people died and 33 were injured
at the ICL Plastics factory in Glasgow in 2004. In that instance,
LPG had leaked from a corroded underground metal pipe into the
basement of the factory and then ignited, causing an explosion
leading to the catastrophic collapse of the four-storey
building.
Up until the 1980s, the LPG service pipe work installed was
metallic, often steel or copper, and, was usually provided
with some form of corrosion protection. However, even if this
corrosion protection was correctly installed (which was not always
the case), its efficiency reduces over time. Gas users do not
always appreciate that they own this pipe work and many users have
taken no measures to maintain it. There are, therefore, a large
number of premises with ageing buried metallic pipe work in an
unknown condition and with inadequate protection against
corrosion.
Scope
This inspection campaign relates only to non-domestic
installations with vapour phase pipe work, but there is on-going
work to address the risks in domestic premises. Similarly, there
will be a separate exercise for caravan sites and metered
estates.
All in-scope LPG installations with underground pipes will be
assessed, following receipt of a standard questionnaire, using a
standardised risk assessment model and the returns will be analysed
by independent contractors. The data will be used to identify sites
as high, medium or lower risk. Follow-up inspections will be paid
to sites identified as high priority.
The risk ranking will be based on the information provided by
the site and its soil type - identified from the
post-code.
By the end of September 2009, gas suppliers received the results
of the risk ranking exercise for sites that had returned
questionnaires. They should have then advised those sites of their
relative risk ranking and when their pipe work should be
replaced.
There is a limited capacity within the industry to replace pipe
work and it is anticipated that replacement at all 'higher risk'
sites will take up to four years, that is until the end of
2013.
Contact the advice line or your consultant for more
information.