The Skikda LNG accident: losses, lessons learned and safety climate assessment

The Skikda LNG accident was the worst petrochemical plant fire in Algeria, in which 27 employees died, 56 injured and cost $900 million. The accident was caused by several reasons: poor maintenance and poor general condition of unit 40, the site distribution of different units which caused domino effect and there is no perfect prevention, communication system on safety. The paper summarised the lessons from the Skikda LNG accident and assessed the health and safety management made following the accident. Also, a safety climate assessment is used to assess employees' perceptions at the new safety policy. The results showed that there is divergence between operators and executives because operators are not involved in the safety setting.

Keywords: safety climate, health and safety management, accident costs, Skikda LNG accident, Algeria, petrochemical plant fire, employee perceptions, safety policy, liquefied natural gas, industrial accidents