Turnarounds · qualification · project policies
Liability insurance for a welding company in the petrochemical industry
A welding company at a refinery or tank farm earns its money in short peaks with a great deal of hired-in labour. It is precisely in those peaks that the circumstances arise which an insurer comes back to later: who was on the torch, with what qualification, and whose policy the project fell under.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een lasbedrijf in de petrochemie.
The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert. nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
Work out for yourself what it would cost.
Enter your details; you will receive a proposal within one working day.
- We compare the offerings of several insurers
- An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
- We arrange the switch, including cancellation
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
Your cover is assessed on what you take on and on who carries it out. During a turnaround a permanent gang grows from ten to eighty, hired in through welding agencies and subcontractors. That affects your policy in two places. The payroll and hired-in labour figures you declared when you applied are then no longer correct, while Article 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code allows payment to be reduced in proportion to the premium an insurer would have charged had the declaration been correct. And the duty of care under Article 7:658(4) of the Dutch Civil Code applies in full to hired-in welders, even where their contract lies elsewhere.
The second theme is the overlap with the client's policy. Large sites often place shutdown work under a project insurance on which all contractors are covered. That does not remove your own obligation: such a policy has its own scope, its own excess and often a right of recovery against whoever caused the loss. Ask for each project on what terms you are covered and whether your own public and employers' liability insurance operates as primary or secondary alongside it.
What stays outside in any event: grinding out and rewelding a rejected weld is your own performance and not damage to a third party; the turnover the client loses during an extended shutdown is pure financial loss; and gradual pollution of soil or water belongs on environmental damage insurance. A contractual penalty for a missed start-up date is liability you accepted yourself and is therefore excluded as well.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
What to look out for
Four points that weigh more heavily at welding companies on chemical sites than the level of the sum insured.
The qualification file is your evidence
Welding procedure qualifications, welder certificates, material certificates and NDT reports together form the file requested after a failure. If a weld cannot be traced to a qualified welder, your position on fault is weak and your insurer will examine whether you complied with the warranty clauses in your policy.
Hot work in a zone with an explosion risk
Cutting, grinding and welding in an ATEX zone is permitted only under a work permit, after gas testing and with a release. Insurers include a separate clause for it with requirements about screening, extinguishing equipment and a follow-up check. If that is departed from, cover for exactly that fire or explosion damage falls away, and knowingly carrying on can count as recklessness under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code.
Peak staffing and hired-in workers
Agency welders, foreign gangs and subcontractors fall during your work under your duty of care. Record who gave the toolbox instruction, who was the manhole watch and who signed the release. Without those records you carry the burden of proof under Article 7:658 DCC with no material to discharge it.
What you have in hand in the unit
The pipe, column or heat exchanger you are working on is the site's property and is in your care, custody and control. If you damage the installation itself, that runs into a standard exclusion. If the damage spreads to adjacent units, cable trays or tracing, that is damage to third parties. Consider for each contract whether additional care, custody and control cover with its own limit is needed.
What does your premium depend on?
- Payroll including hired-in labour: the peak during turnarounds counts, not only the permanent team
- Share of work in process installations: work on pressure-retaining parts weighs more heavily than structural work
- Certification and welding procedure management: a demonstrable qualification system lowers the risk assessed
- Subcontracting: what you pass on and what requirements you set for those parties
- Care, custody and control cover and the limit: whether damage to the installation in hand is included
- Claims history and prevention regime: fire watch procedures and permit discipline are taken into account
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| Sparks from your grinding set the cable tray of an adjacent unit alight | Provided that | No |
| An employee of another contractor falls through a cover plate your gang had lifted | Yes | No |
| A hired-in welder falls off the scaffold during your work and is left permanently unfit for work | Provided that | No |
| You calculate a temporary pipe support yourself and it turns out to be too light, after which the design has to be amended | No | Yes |
| The scaffold you hired from the site is damaged because your gang stacked material on it | No | No |
| The client charges a daily rate for every day the shutdown overran | No | No |
For the first row cover stands or falls with the hot work clause: permit, gas test and follow-up check.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
The site has project insurance. Do we still need an AVB of our own?
Yes. A project policy is limited to that work, that period and that location, and says nothing about your liability outside it or about damage arising only after handover. What is more such a policy often retains recovery against the contractor who caused the loss. Your own insurance remains the basis. The project cover is an addition you have to read for each job.
A weld is rejected on radiography. Who pays for putting it right?
You do. Carrying out your own work again is performance of the contract and not damage to anyone else. In insurance terms that only changes where putting it right damages other property, insulation, cabling or adjacent valves for instance, or where someone is injured.
We also weld on pressure equipment. Does that change acceptance?
Often yes. Work on pressure-retaining parts and on systems with hazardous substances is assessed separately by insurers, with attention to the inspection regime and the notified body. Report it if you start taking on this kind of work while your policy was not written for it. An activity that has changed and has not been notified can affect payment.
What if a former employee reports lung complaints years later?
Exposure to welding fumes, hexavalent chromium or benzene produces claims with a long tail. What matters is whether your policy is based on the moment of the act or on the moment the claim is brought, and whether run-off is arranged when you switch or cancel. Report an event from which you expect a loss immediately, because Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code requires timely notification.
Read more
Within Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekeringthe main page
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering lasser petrochemie zzp
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering petrochemie zzp
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering lasbedrijf
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering flensmontage bedrijf
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering pijpfitter zzp
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering procesoperator zzp
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