| dc.description.abstract | The concept of safety barriers has become a main focus in the oil and gas industry in the last decade. Accordingly, many efforts are being spent from the risk decision makers to improve the understanding of the different aspects in that context. One of the main challenges is how to integrate the quantitative risk analysis (QRA) with safety barrier management (SBM). The integration of both concepts will result in better management of major accident hazards (MAH) on board the production facilities. However, the integration of QRA with SBM can take several forms when it comes to the operations phase. Condition monitoring of safety barriers’ performance can be a good solution for bridging the gap between both tools.
The objective of the thesis is to introduce a methodology for monitoring the performance of safety barriers continuously in daily operations on offshore production platforms. The safety barriers are monitored through indicators. The indicators are representing the critical human, technical and organisational (MTO) factors that could influence the performance of safety barriers dramatically during operations. Further, the critical MTO factors are identified through independent uncertainty and sensitivity assessments of the performance of safety barriers as provided in the QRA results. Afterwards, the different indicators of each factors are linked with a risk barometer in order to indicate the status of the particular safety barrier. Such status, as indicated on the barometer, is providing the concerned parties with early warning signals about the performance degradation of the barrier of interest. Accordingly, the operation personnel and management can take the proper precautionary actions to maintain the performance of the safety barrier within the safe limit.
In order to produce the proposed methodology, the thesis has covered different aspects of safety barriers and risk assessment on its context. At the beginning, a literature review of the concepts of risk, risk assessment, and safety barriers is introduced. In particular, this part has introduced the scientific foundation of these concepts, in addition to, their different types and methods of classification. Furthermore, the thesis has introduced a brief description of the relevant regulatory requirements and standards in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). Subsequently, the thesis has also described the methodologies used for including the performance of safety barriers into QRA model. In this part, it has been recommended that the influence of MTO factors on safety barriers performance should be considered when performing QRA. Moreover, the methods of uncertainty and sensitivity analyses have been described and discussed to identify the most applicable approach for criticality assessment of MTO factors. Finally, the thesis has concluded with a case study and discussion to illustrate the possibility of implementing the proposed methodology for monitoring the safety barriers continuously in operations phase. | nb_NO |
