Chương IV Nghị định 87/2018/NĐ-CP: An toàn trong hoạt động kinh doanh khí

Chapter IV

GAS BUSINESS SAFETY

Article 47. General safety provisions applied to gas business facilities

1. Gas producers, processors, importers, exporters, sellers or purchasers; traders producing and repairing LPG bottles or mini-sized LPG bottles; filling stations, distribution stations and compressing stations; traders leasing tanks, bottled LPG warehouse and means of transport must develop a safe management program and send a report of risk assessment as well as plans for dealing with emergency events to competent authorities for approval.

For the case in which the gas business facility includes producing and processing premises, ports for import and export, a filling station adjacent to a distribution station owned by a single person, the safe management program, risk assessment report and plans for dealing with emergency events shall be applied to the whole facility.

2. Facilities prescribed in clause 1 in this Article must annually practices the methods presented in the approved plan for dealing with emergency events.

3. Every facility must issue all procedures for operation, procedures for solving problems and safety regulations approved by the head of such facility.

4. All machines and equipments strictly subject to labor safety requirement must undergo an inspection of labor safety technique as regulated.

5. Instruments and equipments used for measurement must be inspected and calibrated in accordance with provisions of the law on measurement.

6. There must be a safe distance between the equipment, construction works and barriers of facilities or protected places as regulated.

7. Regulations on fire preventing and fire extinguishing in accordance with provisions of laws must be satisfied.

8. People engaged in the management works, employees working at the gas business facility including the drivers of vehicles used for gas transport must be trained in safe techniques.

9. Annually, every gas business facility must self-offer or hire other organization to offer a training course in labor safety techniques for its employees.

10. The Ministry of Industry and Trade shall decide the training program and content of safety technique course in gas business.

11. The Department of Industry and Trade shall check the training in safety techniques of gas business facilities.

Article 48. Safety requirements applied to gas tanks

1. A gas tank must be installed with sufficient safety equipments and calibrated as regulated.

2. A gas tank must be attached to an emergency shut-off valve.

3. A tank must be placed outdoor, outside the house or enclosed construction works. Do not place the tank on the roof, in the balcony, basement or under construction works.

4. Fixed tanks must not be placed onto one another. Horizontal cylindrical tanks must not aligned along the vertical axis towards the house or service buildings.

5. Underground tanks must not be placed under flammable liquids storage facilities.

Article 49. Safety requirements applied to gas pipelines

1. A gas pipeline must be put on a firm support and painted with prescribed color when coupling.

2. An underground pipeline must be protected against erosion by appropriate methods. A gas pipeline and its thickness must undergo periodical inspections as regulated.

3. Safe distance among the pipelines themselves, between the pipeline and coupled objects must satisfy the regulations.

Article 50. Safety requirements applied to LPG bottling station

1. LPG bottling station must not be placed in the basement or in floors of apartments or high buildings.

2. The floor of the station must be flat, equal or higher than surrounding ground. Where the floor is raised, the space beneath must be filled up, if left empty, ventilation is required. Flammable objects or substances must not be stored or maintained in such space.

3. LPG bottling must follow the bottling process of the station. The volume of bottled LPG must be consistent to that designed for each type of bottle.

4. Bottled LPG must be checked for its tightness and must be labeled and sealed.

5. Bottled LPG warehouses of the station must be consistent with regulations in Article 57 hereof.

6. LPG must not be bottled and LPG bottles must be discarded or repaired or tested in the following cases:

a) The information on the bottle volume presented in the bottle jacket is unreadable or none information is shown;

b) Bottles have defects or defects in their handle of base belt;

c) Bottles have physical defects in their body;

d) Bottles are eroded to the visible extent;

dd) Bottles burn due to arc or fire;

e) Bottles, valves or structures for pressure relief (if being equipped) are leaked or broken;

g) Bottles have been expired for test;

h) Bottles have not been tested or not able to identify the expiry for test.

Article 51. Safety requirements applied for gas filling station for vehicles

1. There must be at least 3-meter-distance between the tank and the station's barriers.

2. There must be a coupling between the filling column and flexible hoses for filling vehicle with gases.

3. The filling column must be far from the tank at least 10 meters.

4. The filling column and the gas pipeline connector must be placed outdoor, in a ventilated and covered area.

5. Technological hoses must be put on the ground and the vehicle coming to the station for gas delivery must be connected to the ground.

6. The tank with capacity over 20 cubic meters must be equipped with a sprinkler system to cool its top.

Article 52. Safety requirements applied to gas distribution stations

1. The distance between the tank and another tank of flammable liquid having a flash point less than 65 degrees Celsius must not be less than 7 meters.

2. Requirements applied to the area getting gases from the tank truck:

a) There must be a speed limit sign at the entrance for tank trucks;

b) The area receiving tank trucks must be marked with a signboard and cannot be entered by people without duty while gases are being pumped into the tank;

c) During the gas filling, the tank truck must face the main road or emergency exit and not be obstructed in case of emergency evacuation.

3. Fire engines must always be allowed to enter and exit the station when necessary.

4. Equipments placed in vulnerable areas must be protected by safety methods such as barriers, iron columns, concrete columns and warning signs. These safety equipments must not produce any effect on the ventilation of the gas storage areas.

Article 53. Safety requirements applied to bottled LPG retail stores

1. The store must be in an area of at least 12 square meters.

2. The store must be isolated from fire sources at least 3 meters towards no fireproof walls; if there exist fireproof walls, such distance between the store and fire sources is not required. Construction structure and fire resistance level of the shop must be at least level II. Electronic equipments of the store must be proof against explosion and stay far from LPG bottles at least 1.5 meters.

3. Only empty bottles are permitted to be displayed in shelves for promotion.

4. LPG bottles storage areas must be ventilated. LPG bottles must not be stored in closed chambers or enclosed basements or not be placed in the entrance or public passage. For the case in which there is a bottled LPG warehouse, such warehouse must have at least 1 main door and 1 emergency exit with door open to the outside.

5. LPG bottle repairing and LPG bottling are prohibited.

Article 54. Safety requirements for transporting bottled LPG by motor vehicles

1. Motor vehicles carrying bottled LPG must be licensed to transport dangerous cargo in accordance with regulations in force.

2. Bottles must be aligned vertically with their valves on the top. There must be only one layer of bottles with volume over 99 liters laid on the motor vehicle. Bottles with volume under 99 liters can be laid in 2 or more layers or more but not higher the car and there must be a batten between two layers.

3. The motor vehicle cannot be parked close to fire sources or a place of crowded people or means of transport. For the case in which the motor vehicle is parked temporarily for loading or unloading cargo, it must be parked in a place that not poses a risk to human and not obstruct any other means of transport.

Article 55. Safety requirement for transporting and delivering bottled LPG to customers

1. Motorbikes (two-wheeled motor vehicle) carrying bottled LPG must have a firm support and the bottles whereon must be aligned vertically with their valves on the top.

2. It is prohibited to transport bottled LPG along with person in the elevator, except the one directly transporting them.

3. When providing bottled LPG for customers, the store shall keep 1 delivery note itself and give the customers another one which specifies at least the following information: the owner, bottle type, series number, testing expiry, import place, name and address of the customer, delivery date, name, address and contacts of the store.

4. When delivering, the seller must check the tightness of the bottle’s valve, couplings and hoses after installing or renewing LPG bottles in the presence of customers and sign the delivery minutes provided by such customers.

Article 56. Safety requirements for transporting and delivering gases by tanks

1. The driver, escort and warehouse keeper must be trained in safe techniques as regulated.

2. Tank trucks or tank-cars carrying gas tanks must be licensed to transport dangerous cargo as regulated.

3. When awaiting for gas delivery, the tank truck must park in a safe place with appropriate barrier facing the nearest emergency exit and must be separated from fire sources at least 7 meters. Tank trucks are not permitted to park or operate in enclosed-3-side house.

4. Tank trucks must be connected to the ground and the front tire must be blocked completely before gas delivery.

5. Tank trucks must park at the designated location if gases are delivered and received at the station. Location for parking and delivering gases must be convenient to couple the hoses and valves; the truck must turn towards the exit. The exit for the truck must not be obstructed during the gas delivery.

6. When delivering gases to tank-cars, the train coupling with such tank-cars must be blocked by brakes; tank-cars must be arranged which makes sure their entire valve boxes will stay in one side of the train.

7. The liquid LPG pipelines of a LPG tank truck must be equipped with a check valve at the back of hand valve to block the entrance of the pipeline.

Article 57. Safety requirements applied to bottled LPG warehouses

1. Bottled LPG warehouses must have equipments for testing and warning LPG leaking.

2. Bottled LPG in such warehouses must be stored in ventilated places not in areas lower than the surrounding ground, in the vault or basement.

3. Outdoor warehouses storing at least 1.000 kilograms of bottled LPG must be divided into small batches. The LPG bottle warehouse must be separated from bottled LPG warehouse at least 3 meters.

4. Indoor bottled LPG warehouse must meet requirements for volume and place of storage as regulated.