Davoud Emadi said the industry’s main safety priorities
included strengthening resilience, implementing process safety management
systems, upgrading fixed equipment and improving the operational capabilities
of safety and firefighting teams.
Given the sector’s exposure to flammable materials, major
risks include explosions, cascading accidents and hydrocarbon releases, he
said. Measures to address these threats include controlling tank inventories
and high-risk processes, as well as issuing and monitoring compliance with
production continuity guidelines.
War experience shapes emergency preparedness
Emadi said lessons from previous incidents and the 12-day
and 40-day wars highlighted the need to prepare for multiple simultaneous
emergencies, maintain operations during disruptions to water, electricity and
communications, establish unified crisis command structures and shift the focus
from emergency response toward resilience.
An NPC-led working group has been established to investigate
accidents and identify their root causes, with experts from across the
petrochemical industry participating in post-incident reviews. The group is
also preparing lessons-learned documents to help prevent similar incidents,
including a comprehensive analysis of accidents over the past 15 years.
Emadi said investment in modern equipment and technologies
was essential to improve accident prevention and upgrade safety systems. Full
implementation of process safety management and a reduction in major accident
rates are among the management’s priorities for the coming Iranian year.
Fire protection systems under regular inspection
Fixed firefighting water networks and operational fire
engines at petrochemical complexes are inspected through annual tests in
accordance with National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards and
directives issued by the Oil Ministry’s HSE directorate, Emadi said.
The age of some petrochemical facilities remains a major
concern, requiring coordination among asset management, maintenance,
operations, engineering, HSE and senior management teams.
Several companies are implementing integrated asset
management systems and risk-based prioritization to improve equipment
reliability. Redesign projects and studies to modernize safety and firefighting
equipment and infrastructure are also under way, he said.
Smart technologies and domestic equipment
NPC is pursuing projects to develop intelligent fire
detection and suppression systems in cooperation with its research, technology
and domestic manufacturing management, Emadi said.
Artificial intelligence, real-time monitoring systems,
drones and smart sensors are increasingly being used to detect leaks, fires and
other hazards at an early stage, becoming an additional layer of industrial
monitoring and prevention rather than merely supplementary or experimental
technologies.
Contractor safety culture remains an area for improvement,
he said, adding that safety training frameworks have been issued for different
occupations. Training for employees and contractors is planned according to
job-specific needs, while all contractor agreements include HSE requirements.
Periodic contractor inspections and audits are also
conducted by client supervisory teams and relevant holding companies. Practical
training in emergency response and crisis management is intended to strengthen
safety awareness among workers.
The industry’s production continuity guidelines, developed
with other NPC departments, seek to balance uninterrupted production with the
suspension of high-risk activities. Decisions to continue or halt operations
are based on risk assessments and operating conditions, Emadi said.
Firefighting readiness and accident trends
Firefighting teams compete in annual operational assessments
at petrochemical zones and in specialized assessments organized by NPC every
two years. Regional and company-level emergency drills also test their
readiness to respond to potential incidents.
Annual Level B civil defense exercises are conducted in the
Mahshahr petrochemical zone, subject to approval of the scenarios by the
relevant oil ministry and national civil defense authorities. Level A exercises
in the Assaluyeh area are organized under the direction of the senior regional
civil defense and crisis management commander.
The industry’s emergency response guidelines are
periodically revised in light of experience from recent incidents, Emadi said.
He added that updating HSE organizational structures to reflect the industry’s
current needs remained another area for improvement.
Despite the expansion of Iran’s petrochemical industry from
about 11 operating companies in 2001 to 82 in 2026, the number of fatal
accidents has fallen significantly, according to performance reports received
from petrochemical companies, Emadi said.