Mitigation of Risks Associated with Gas Pipeline Failure by Using Quantitative Risk Management Approach: A Descriptive Study on Gas Industry

Abstract

Risk assessment is one of the main tools that oil and gas industries use to assess the hazards and risks in their facilities worldwide. Qualitative and quantitative risk assessments are carried out at various phases of the process industry: conceptual stage, design stage, construction stage, operational stage, decommissioning stage, etc. The quantitative risk assessment is directed during the detailed design stage to decide the spacing and layout out of equipment for safe operation and maintenance of oil and gas industries. The equipment layout and spacing are based on the safe distances are to be carried out on various design safety studies. In this work, a study was carried out on upstream onshore natural gas gathering stations and associated equipment and pipeline networks. The fire, explosion assessment, and toxic gas dispersion are conducted to evaluate how it affects people, assets, and the environment. Whether the design protection systems are adequate to mitigate the consequences or any additional measures to reduce risk to an acceptable level is analyzed.

Keywords

• quantitative risk assessment
• software models
• toxic gas dispersion
• gas pipelines