Process Safety Leadership

The Principles of Process Safety Leadership is a signed commitment by leaders to establish eight principles as the foundations of effective process safety management and prevention of major accidents.

Developed in 2010 by the Process Safety Leadership Group (PSLG) which was created in response to the Buncefield explosion, the principles were re-signed in 2023, demonstrating the offshore energy's leadership commitment to effectively control major hazard risks. The Principles of Process Safety Leadership for the Offshore UKCS Oil & Gas Industry (PPSL) can be used as a means to judge performance, as a sense check when establishing the root cause of an accident, or as discussion aids during leadership meetings or workforce engagement sessions.

Download Principles of Process Safety Leadership for the Offshore UKCS Oil & Gas Industry signed in 2023.

Contact Workgroup

To contact the Process Safety Leadership workgroup, e-mail: alan.mcintyre@stepchangeinsafety.net

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Meet the Co-chairs

Bruce Webb
Associate Director
Scapa Energy
Bruce has over thirty years of experience in high-hazard industries, starting with BP in Scotland and then internationally from Azerbaijan to Wyoming. He was director of Operations in Projects, VP Operations and Head of Country for BP in Algeria and Libya.
He was COO at DNO based in Dubai, with activities in Norway, Oman, Somaliland, Tunisia, Kurdistan, Iran, and Yemen. In his first week, the company had a work-related fatality, Bruce led the team to fundamentally reshape leadership engagement in safety.
For Neptune Energy, he was Vice President of Operations with a critical focus on Process Safety.
Bruce has a portfolio of activities, focusing on Safety Leadership. He is co-chair of the Step Change in Safety Process Safety Leadership working group and on the OEUK Process Safety Leadership working group.
He has a B.Eng (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from Edinburgh University, is an Associate Member of the Institute of Risk Management, a member of the IoD and a Fellow of the IChemE.
Laura Forté
Process Safety & Risk Superintendent
BP Exploration
Laura has over twenty-five years of experience in the offshore oil and gas industry, working in the North Sea, in the UK and Norway.
She is currently supporting process safety risk management in West Africa for bp. She formerly held a global role as Principal Process Safety Engineer for ConocoPhillips in the USA.
Laura is co-chair of the Step Change in Safety Process Safety Leadership working group. Previously, she was a member of IChemE Major Hazards Committee work group on Process Safety Competency and was Vice-Chair of the Energy Institute Process Safety Committee.
She has a B.Eng (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from Heriot Watt University, an MSc in Management from Robert Gordon University, and is a Fellow of the IChemE.