Marine Terminal Particulars Questionnaire 2 Release update Nov. 2021

 

MTPQ2 Release   The Ship-Shore Interfaces Expert Group are pleased to announce the release of the new MTPQ2 templates into production on 22 November 2021.   This release includes the following changes:   A separate Port Index has been created to reduce duplication against terminal particulars and provide a central source of Port data, providing an index of terminals at each port. The reduction in questions is designed to reduce the management burden upon terminal operators and to reduce the duplication of questions now included in the Terminal Information Booklet. The Vessel-Berth Comparison Tool (VBCT) has been developed that compares jetty published MTPQ2 data uploaded within MTIS, to vessel’s published HVPQ data from the SIRE database and provides a comparison output.    Existing MTPQ1 data has been migrated across to the new template where possible, but Terminal Operators will need to populate the following information prior to publication of the MTPQ2:   Terminal and Berth - Type of Product Handled – currently stored as free text in each Berth document.  This is now a multiple choice tick box selection that determines which questions are available in the Berth Questionnaire. Berth - 2.2 Frequency - next survey is due (Date of latest hydrographic/bathymetric survey from which transit depth has been determined) this is currently stored as days, but this should now be stored as years. Berth – 3.3  Frequency - next survey is due (Date of latest hydrographic/bathymetric survey from which alongside depth has been determined) currently stored as days, but this should now be stored as years. Port Authority Contact Details – this is currently stored in each terminal document as free text.  This is now part of a central Port record and should be updated accordingly.   In order for the MTPQ2 to be republished, Terminal Operators will need to; •             Upload a TIB document – see guidelines in the Terminal Attachments grid. •             Select ‘Type of Product Handled’ at both the Terminal and Berths. •             Complete all mandatory Berth questions. •             Republish the MTPQ2 when all mandatory information is complete.   For further information, please view the updated MTIS user guide available in the the Resources area of your MTIS account.   Regards,   OCIMF

Vroeg Waarschuwing Systeem om risico's te voorkomen

 Als ik de controlekamer van een terminal bezoek, zie ik vaak dat er een whiteboard aan de muur hangt waarop bijvoorbeeld informatie over noodzakelijke reparaties wordt genoteerd, zoals defecte kleppen, de telefoon op steiger 5 werkt niet, regenwater van drijvende daktanks als gevolg van geblokkeerde dakafvoeren of apparatuur die buiten bedrijf is, enzovoorts.

Deepwater Horizon; als je de film bekijkt zie je dat diverse apparatuur niet functioneerde. Die informatie werd genegeerd, de rest is geschiedenis.

Landtanks op de Cilacap raffinaderij, Indonesië stonden deze week in brand. Ik heb daar gewerkt en begrijp dat een tekort aan informatie door slecht onderhoud de oorzaak kan zijn geweest.

De informatietheorie en de cybernetica bewijzen dat informatie fysisch is. Bits van informatie zijn de fundamentele bouwstenen van de werkelijkheid. Inzicht in deze verbazingwekkende wetenschappen is van cruciaal belang voor de levensduur, de continuïteit, de veiligheid en de duurzaamheid van tankopslag- en raffinageactiviteiten.

Opslagterminals en raffinaderijen die er niet in slagen informatieprocessen en interne controlesystemen effectief te implementeren, zullen waarschijnlijk op een bepaald moment met een informatietekort te maken krijgen, wat zal leiden tot slechtere prestaties. Begrijpen hoe een tekort aan informatie leidt tot entropie of wanorde is van cruciaal belang als u een effectief en veilig bedrijf wilt runnen.

Wij passen 3 universele wetten van de fysica en de cybernetica toe;

a. Informatie blijft behouden en kan niet worden gescheiden of gewist uit onze fysieke werkelijkheid.

b. Informatie tekort (tekort) ≙ Entropie (wanorde) ( ≙ per definitie).

c.  De Wet van Vereiste Variëteit

Terminal Managers en Supervisors zijn zich vaak niet bewust en proberen de 3 wetten van de fysica te breken die niet gebroken kunnen worden zonder verhoogd risico in de vorm van entropie (wanorde). Terminal management en operaties zijn dynamisch en hebben informatie feedback nodig in real time om gestuurd en maximaal gecontroleerd te worden. Dit kan niet worden geregeld of geautomatiseerd vanwege de fysica van onzekerheid en de realiteit van leven en werken in een niet-lineair universum, maar kan wel worden "gestuurd" door informatiefeedback

Wij hebben een systeem voor vroegtijdige waarschuwing ontworpen dat het potentiële informatietekort meet om de kwetsbaarheid te voorspellen. Wat wij aanbieden is toegang tot de kwantiteit en kwaliteit van informatie in organisaties om het potentiële niveau van blootstelling aan risico's met wetenschappelijke methode te verifiëren.

Onderzoeksresultaten: Wij hebben deze waarschuwingsmethodologie wereldwijd met groot succes getest. Een onderzoek bij 100 tankopslagterminals heeft bevestigd dat er een leemte bestond omdat 10 fundamentele technische en operationele vragen niet afdoende konden worden beantwoord.

Terminal Managers, Supervisors en personeel kunnen worden geïnstrueerd en opgeleid hoe zij kunnen werken met deze systemische aanpak door middel van informatietheorie om mogelijke gaten in het leerproces op te sporen door toepassing van de wet van de Requisite Variety a.k.a. Ashby's Law: Als volgt:

- Een situatie kan alleen worden beheerst als de variëteit van de controleur overeenkomt met de variëteit van de te beheersen situatie. (Verscheidenheid is informatie).

- Een opslagterminal genereert een enorme variëteit en probeert die op zijn eigen manier te beheersen door middel van controlelijsten, voorschriften en wetten.

- Als de variëteit niet wordt afgestemd, zullen systemen uit de hand lopen (entropie).

- Het is onmogelijk om elke variabele te beheersen, dus de meeste variëteit wordt geabsorbeerd door relaties met andere systemen.

- Dit betekent dat bij risicobeheersing alleen voldoende variëteit, d.w.z. informatie in een systeem, risico's kan absorberen of beheersen die voortkomen uit variëteit van buitenaf.

- Door gebruik te maken van terugkoppeling wordt deze informatie in het systeem gebracht, zodat het systeem zich voortdurend kan aanpassen en kan leren.

- Het is onmogelijk alle risico's te beheersen aangezien systemen fluctueren door informatie van een voortdurend veranderende variëteit in een niet-lineaire omgeving.  Informatie vermindert de onzekerheid.

- Menselijke variëteit, omgevingsvariëteit, sociale variëteit, regelgevingsvariëteit veranderen voortdurend en kunnen dus alleen worden beheerst door het gebruik van real-time feedback (informatie).

- Dit betekent dat de mensen met de gecombineerde kennis, ervaring, deskundigheid, invloed, apparatuur, hulpmiddelen, enz. om dit te doen, gebruik moeten maken van alle relevante informatie als dempers, om variëteit te dempen en variëteitgeneratoren om variëteit op te bouwen.

- Verbetering van gezondheid en veiligheid wordt gecreëerd door variëteit toe te voegen in de vorm van PBM's, persoonlijke beschermingsmiddelen, gasdetectoren, enzovoort.

- Ethiek en MVO zijn vereisten die werken als informatiefeedbacklussen en zijn risicodempers.

Onze wereldwijde opleidingservaring en de feedback van klanten geven ons een goed inzicht in het risico van een informatietekort dat leidt tot lacunes in de kennis, waardoor de terminals kwetsbaar worden.

Ik realiseer me dat dit misschien verbijsterend is, maar het onderzoek om dit te staven is te vinden op onze website www.sustenance4all.com . Is dit de volgende stap in de optimalisering van de terminalprestaties? We weten dat het zo is. De potentiële toepassingen van dit systeem voor vroegtijdige waarschuwing zijn grensloos : operationele uitmuntendheid, HSEQ-controle en duurzaamheid, winstgevendheid en vertrouwen zijn afhankelijk van de kwaliteit en kwantiteit van de informatie. Het besturen van levende systemen (de terminal) kan van de natuur worden afgekeken. Eenvoudig! Maar eerst moeten de mensen begrijpen en worden geleerd hoe de natuur en de fysica ons beschermen.

An Early Warning System for our Industry to prevent risk.

 

When I visit a terminal’s control room I often observe that there is a whiteboard on the wall where, for example, information about needed repairs such as faulty valves, the phone on jetty 5 doesn’t work, rain water of floating roof tanks due to blocked roof drains or equipment out of operation, etcetera are recorded.

Deepwater Horizon; when you watch the movie you’ll notice that various equipment was not functioning. That information was ignored, the rest is history.

Shore tanks at the Cilacap Refinery, Indonesia were on fire this week. I worked there and understand that information deficit due to poor maintenance could have been the cause.

Information theory and cybernetics prove that information is physical. Bits of information are the fundamental building blocks of reality. Understanding what can be done by these amazing sciences is crucial for the longevity, continuity safety and sustainability of tank storage and refining operations.

Marine Storage Terminals and Refineries that fail to effectively implement information process and internal control systems are likely to face an information deficit at some stage resulting in degraded performance. Understanding how information deficits result in entropy or disorder is critical if you want to operate an effective and safe business.

We apply 3 universal laws of physics and cybernetics;

a. Information is preserved and can't be divorced nor erased from our physical reality.

b. Information Deficit (shortage) ≙ Entropy (disorder)  ( ≙ per definition).

c.  The Law of Requisite Variety

Terminal Managers and Supervisors are often not aware and try to break the 3 laws of physics which can't be broken without increased risk in the form of entropy (disorder). Terminal management and operations are dynamic and need information feedback in real time to be steered and maximally controlled. This can't be regulated or automated because of the physics of uncertainty and the reality of living and working in non linear universe, but can be ‘steered’ by information feedback

We designed an early warning system which measures potential information deficit (shortage) to predict vulnerability. What we offer to do is to access the quantity and quality of information in  organisations to verify the potential level of exposure to risk by scientific method.

Research Results: We have tested this warning methodology worldwide with great success. A survey of 100 Marine Storage Terminals confirmed that a learning gap exists because 10 basic technical and operational questions could not be answered adequately.

Terminal Managers, Supervisors and staff can be instructed and trained how they can work with this systemic approach by information theory to detect possible learning gaps by applying the Law of Requisite Variety a.k.a.  Ashby’s Law: As follows:

•            A situation can only be controlled if the variety of the controller matches the variety of the situation to be controlled. (Variety being information).

•            A storage terminal generates tremendous variety and tries to control it in its own way through checklists, regulations and laws.

•            If variety is not matched, systems will spin out of control (entropy).

•            It is impossible to control for every variable so most variety is absorbed through relationships with other systems.

•            It means that in Risk Management, only enough variety, i.e. information in a system can absorb, or control risks originating from outside variety.

•            By using feedback, this information is fed into the system to allow the system to adjust and learn constantly.

•            It is impossible to control all risks as systems fluctuate by information from constant changing variety in a non linear environment.  Information reduces uncertainty.

•            Human variety, environmental variety, social variety, regulatory variety change all the time thus can only be governed by the use of real time feedback (information).

•            This means to have the people with the combined knowledge, experience, expertise, influence, equipment, tools, etc. to do so, using all relevant information as attenuators, to damp variety and variety generators to build variety.

•            Health and Safety improvement is created by adding variety in the form of PPE, Personal Protective Equipment, Gas detectors and so on.

•            Ethics and CSR are requisites that work as information feedback loops and are risk attenuators.

Our world-wide training experience and feedback from customers gives us a great insight about the risk of  information deficit resulting in knowledge gaps, which made the terminals vulnerable.

I realise this may be mind-boggling, but the research to back this up can be found on our website www.sustenance4all.com . Is this the next step of terminal performance optimisation? We know it is. The potential applications of this early warning system are endless: operational excellence, HSEQ  control and sustainability, profitability and trust depend on the quality and quantity of information. Controlling living systems (the terminal) can be copied from nature. Easy! But first people must understand and thus can be taught how nature and physics protect us.

Sierra Leone, Gasoline Truck Explosion - CSR and the Oil and Gas Industry

Free Town.

A few days ago a gasoline truck collided with another truck in the city streets of Freetown in Sierra Leone. This is what CNN wrote: 'The explosion occurred after two vehicles collided on the highway while the fuel tanker was about to enter a nearby filling station to discharge its fuel, the NDMA said in a statement posted to Facebook on Saturday afternoon. Footage and eyewitnesses intimated that while the collision took place, both drivers came out of their vehicles and warned community residents to stay off the scene while trying to address a leakage emanating from the collision," the statement said. It added that while that was happening, "some community members rushed to the scene and took advantage of the leakage to scoop fuel and store it in nearby makeshift structures."

Because I happened to train a group of Freetown Petroleum Storage Terminal operators and loading masters last week, I wanted to express my condolences to those families who lost loved ones. I am  writing this short blog on an assumed and probable analysis of this accident, because we need to ask this question: ‘seek knowledge of causes’. Because I have lived and worked in Africa several years, I can only conclude that 2nd cause is unawareness of the hazardous properties of gasoline, but that the principal first cause is poverty. I can only imagine that when gasoline is leaking out of a truck, right in front of your home, you may think; ‘Wah, today we can fill our tanks for free; so let’s get jerrycans!’

I can imagine a growing crowd thinking the very same, all rushing to the trucks to get their share of the loot, not understanding, because no one informed them, that the ignition temperature of gasoline vapour is about between 250 and 280 degrees Celsius and that the breaks temperature of trucks can reach 500 degrees Celsius. It can be assumed that the heat generated by the explosion i.e. fireball exceeded 8000 degrees Celsius. Perhaps someone lit a cigarette, or wore cheap static electric clothes, or messed with the wrenched steel, no one knows. Fact is that information about hazardous compounds is not shared with the general public, which I believe is the responsibility of all us working in the oil and gas sector. So, my call on you; let’s create a online information and learning platform to prevent such devastating accidents from happening in the future in countries less fortunate? Please sponsor education and awareness training programs thru our website www.tankterminaltraining.com? 

The Cassandra Effect: 'Why visionaries who can accurately predict looming disasters are often ignored’.

I just read an interesting article written by Richard A. Clarke and R.P. Eddy called; 'Why visionaries who can accurately predict looming disasters are often ignored’.

I could not help feeling touched by this article as it exactly confirmed what I am experiencing myself. I have been writing this column and my blog for some years now, but despite the truthfulness and predictions based on logic and empirical research, most of what I write seems to be ignored.

The column I write for Hazardous Cargo Bulletin and my publications on LinkedIn are well researched. I trained myself as a cybernetician and a systems and information theorist, because by combining these scientifically sound insights, I can predict looming disasters. I developed an early warning system and a mapping tool to do this. It measures the so-called limitations of reality by calculating the quantity of information present in an organisation, government, goal or a product which I coined; Realimiteit. A scientific fact is that the functionality of any man-made system depends on the quantity and quality of the information.

The authors wrote: Cassandra was a beautiful princess of Troy cursed by the god Apollo. He gave her the ability to foresee impending doom but the inability to persuade anyone to believe her. Her ability to pierce the barriers of space and time to see the future showed her the fiery fall of her beloved city, but the people of Troy ridiculed and disregarded her. She descended into madness and ultimately became one of the victims of the tragedy she foretold.

Are there Cassandras among us today warning of ticking disasters, whose predictions fall on deaf ears? Is it possible to figure out who these seers are? Can we cut through the false warnings to tune into the correct visions, saving millions of lives and billions of dollars? This question is not about Greek mythology. It is about our ability today, as a nation, as an international community, a company, to detect impending disaster and act in time to avoid it or at least to mitigate the damage.

Buried in billions of pages of blog posts and tweets, academic research, and government reports, Cassandra figuratively calls to us, warning of calamity. 

So, there you have it.  Information, even perhaps of negligible value, still has to be used when decisions are made. Not allowing parts of it, will alter outcome beyond control. (Butterfly Effect). Ulteriorly motivated suppression of information, i.e. predictions based on science, but also by those who are able to foresee things, directly destabilises intended results and make them 'uncontrollable'.  Cassandra knew this as do many philosophers who  ask 'ALL' questions and can reliably synthesise what is going to happen next. We now observe a global elite, politically and financially interdependent that tries to ignore information and hunts down or even stifles or jails Cassandras who do perhaps contradict centrally planned stealth goals. I foresee and you may quote me: 'This will end in disaster, because we can predict catastrophe by epistemological knowledge using systems science and cybernetics.' Same applies for Hazardous Cargo Industries. HSE and Risk can only be prevented by using all information and by listening to Cassandras. Perhaps Cassandra was an early cybernetician? I feel she certainly was a ‘systems thinker’. If you know Cassandra, please listen to her?

CYBER ATTACKS, CYBER ETHICS

A crippling ransomware attack on one of the largest fuel distribution networks in the US has brought into sharp focus the cyber threats facing infrastructure of national importance. The taking of the Colonial Pipeline brought the authorities’ worst fears to life. The ransomware attack disabled the 5,500-mile network, causing fuel shortages in the south-eastern states of the US and prompting the Biden administration to declare a state of emergency. Although the Colonial Pipeline Company’s CEO, Joseph Blount, controversially paid the $4.4m (£3.2m) ransom, the network was out of action for a week.

Let’s talk about automation. We can observe that more ‘crucial systems of strategic importance’ in our industry such as marine storage terminals, refineries, chemical production and distribution sectors are being maximally automated. This increases the risk of cyber-attacks. Therefore, our course on Cyberethics is valuable for those who are perhaps not fully aware of human actions in Artificial Intelligence, Robots, Algorithms, Cyber Crime & Security.

Learning about how those technologies impact our business and lives, individually and globally, is essential for all those managing and operating our local and global energy and transport infrastructure. What are the risks we need to be vigilant about? It implies both many positive impacts and outputs from new technologies but also specific and global risks that we need to anticipate. Not all automation is moral and ethical. Decision making based on the artificially produced conclusions needs human contemplation, because inevitably dilemmas will occur.

The cyberspace permeates all dimensions of our contemporary life. It influences the way we travel, the way we remain in connection with others, communicate and harvest information, and ultimately how we organise and run our business. Who are we as humans amidst the cyberspace?

Our online course addresses the salient ethical questions in relation to security, technologies and artificial intelligence, freedom and responsible citizenship in economics and day-to-day business. The units include reading and study material of high actuality. Participants will benefit from full and free access to the Globethics.net online library with a plethora of publications in several collection areas of applied ethics. The course is based on the publication Cyber Ethics 4.0: Serving Humanity with Values written by Christoph Stückelberger and Pavan Duggal, and will be lectured by two high profiled and experienced course instructors. It will help our participants to:

• Recognise the main ethical aspects in cyber environment

• Apply ethics, core values to all decisions that are made within cyber space

• Analyse cyber space management approaches and models from the ethical perspective

• Create new principles of behaviour in cyber space that meet global ethical  principles and rules.

Our industries are ‘complex’ systems of business. Automating them may be attractive, because many believe that if an algorithm is handling things, no human error can be expected. However, it is wise to understand that human beings write code and AI copies human behaviour. AI can’t be programmed to self-reflect and does not automatically ask this simple question: is it right or wrong? Without cyber ethics our industry remains vulnerable.

 

Those interested in learning more about this training course should contact Arend van Campen, founder of TankTerminalTraining, at arendvc@tankterminaltraining.com. More information on the company’s activities can be found at www.tankterminaltraining.com.

 

Uncertainty in Business

Usually I travel to the marine storage terminals of our customers worldwide. Before the Corona outbreak I averaged about ten on-location trainings per year. My current travel has been reduced to once or twice a year. As a matter of fact I just returned from Walvis Bay, Namibia where I updated two terminals by implementing the latest ISGOTT (sixth edition, 2020). It was not easy to organise on-site courses because of the unpredictability factor of politicised politicians who perhaps listen to their health advisors, but not to us, business people or entrepreneurs. 
For example: I was invited to fly to Namibia, so I had to buy a ticket, apply for a visa, book a hotel, make an appointment to be PCR tested within 72 hours of departure. All this without any certainty that this assignment could be executed until the very last minute, only if I tested negative. This means that thousands of euros were spent without knowing that this money could be made back from this deal. 
This uncertainty is highly distressing business potential and performance, because there are no guarantees to be able to go there and neither to be able to go home after the job is done. You are only allowed to fly if you are vaccinated, tested negative or prove you recovered from Covid 19. 
Mathematics and physics talk about the Uncertainty Principle, which I’d like to use as a metaphor to describe our current business environment. Imagine you have a client who’d like to store oil in your tanks, but he won’t be able to confirm the availability of the oil until a government official approves it. Another example: my doctor checks my health regularly, but I can’t travel, because now my health must be proven by a flawed PCR test, so I can’t promise my client that I can be there when he needs me. 
This uncertainty and dependence on politicians and those who benefit of their decisions is called collectivism, which is usually a predecessor for a totalitarian system. When you read the book The Great Reset by World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab, you’ll see that this reset is not designed as a positive interdependent social system (benefitting everyone) but as a negative interdependent system (benefiting a few, but at the costs of…..).
Although the book highlights numerous global risks such as climate change, biodiversity loss, ecological devastation, drinking water pollution and so on, they originated from the WEF Global Risks Reports, which I have been researching for the last decade. These environmental and human crises have not been mitigated prior to the Covid 19 outbreak, but were fundamentally caused by those who support the World Economic Forum. Did the WEF suddenly, because of the Covid situation, grow a consciousness to create a better world? Ask yourself this question, based on research. 

My company is not the only one that is struggling to stay afloat in a business atmosphere I can no longer understand.

This is the latest in a series of articles by Arend van Campen, founder of TankTerminalTraining. More information on the company’s activities can be found at www.tankterminaltraining.com. Those interested in responding personally can contact him directly at arendvc@tankterminaltraining.com.

The future of our tank storage and transport industries hangs on a thin thread.

A moment of reflection when I look back and wonder what happened to our industry, our society, and our world last year. I wrote earlier that ‘business as usual’ won’t be likely nor possible any longer, but that a new, sustainable method is needed if we’d like to preserve our yields and social cohesion.

Venture capitalism is not that method. When Uber or Amazon grow more, most of our shops and businesses in our town centres will be closed. Hotels will suffer and professional taxi drivers will be left standing on the side of the road while a freelance Uber driver picks up the fare for half the price. How many people can we employ if hundreds of thousands of jobs can presently only be done by the cheapest laborers coming from Southeast Asia, Central America, and India? Shipowners profit from lower wages, but that profit can’t be sustainable unless ever more costs are cut. Several luxury cruise liners won’t survive the economic lockdowns taken by scared politicians who overlook proportionality and bring actual harm to the majority of their citizens.

But what about our oil, chemical transport, and the storage sector? How can we survive lower demand, less travel, less consumption because the average family will not be able to support any luxury for some time to come? A re-design is needed.

I know I may repeat myself once more. I foresee a need for communication, for cooperation, for conversation between all players in our industry and with those that are interdependent such as subcontractors, service and supply companies. This can be done in 2021. HCB will invite you to an online information sharing platform. With this collected information, we can then create a feedback loop map by which to predict the future for the sector.

Your input will be valuable as a risk management tool based on Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety. Thus, the needed variety to understand the risks and mitigate them are awareness, knowledge, information, capabilities, capacities and so-called attenuators and amplifiers. The complete, but flexible requisite variety – i.e. information by which to minimise risk – can be used to predict what will be happening on the short and long term. The technology and science to do this are available.

The time of mechanistic, empirical determinism is over. The world has become too complex (wicked) to be solved by outdated methods that have caused them. A new set of instruments are here. They are obtainable, but only for those entrepreneurs, CEOs and managers that are not afraid of change. Asking governments to bail them out, to subsidise green deals, or ask banks for a loan will not be focusing on ‘capability building’ but makes the industry dependent on politically ulterior motivation and unscrupulous banksters which increases risks.

TTT worked out how to implement these exciting new methods to achieve goals and reach destinations for any organisation so they can stabilise and stay sustainable, not just in the context of nature, but as self-organising living systems ensuring continuity. Perhaps you will read this and ask how? I wish you all a Happy New Year and a creative 2021.

This is the latest in a series of articles by Arend van Campen, founder of TankTerminalTraining. More information on the company’s activities can be found at www.tankterminaltraining.com. Those interested in responding personally can contact him directly at arendvc@tankterminaltraining.com.