Systematic methodology for inherent safety indicators assessment of early design stages of offshore oil&gas projects

Offshore oil & gas operations are one of the most hazardous upstream activities since limited space and compact geometry contribute to increase the risk of major accidents. Currently many offshore projects are evolving towards the exploitation of more challenging hydrocarbon fields. The use of the inherent safety philosophy in early stages of the offshore installation design can save lifetime costs and pursue high safety standards. Moreover, an index-based design approach is a comprehensive way to communicate the hazard level of a process route. In this study, a method based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) was introduced to assess the inherent safety performance of alternative offshore designs through the modelling of credible accidents consequences for different targets. The main goal is to provide an efficient support tool for safety-oriented choices during the preliminary design steps. A case study regarding an offshore platform processing associated gas with hydrogen sulphide was presented.