Engineering and Design Disciplines Associated with Management of Hydrocarbon Explosion and Fire Risks in Offshore Oil and Gas Facilities

More than 70% of accidents that occur in offshore oil and gas facilities stem from hydrocarbon explosions and fires, which result in serious consequences in association with health, safety and the environment. Most of these accidents are the result of a long chain of human error. To reduce accidents, therefore, the opportunities for human error and the effects of the errors should be minimized, by designing equipment and work systems in accordance with human factors engineering principles. For the last two decades, risk-based approaches as key disciplines of human factors engineering principles have more extensively been applied to offshore oil and gas projects. However, many challenges still lie ahead to develop pertinent engineering and design disciplines for the quantitative assessment and management of hydrocarbon explosion and fire risks. The aim of the present study is to develop a documented procedure for the quantitative assessment and management of hydrocarbon explosion and fire risks in offshore oil and gas facilities. In the present paper, the application of the developed procedure is demonstrated for an FPSO installation with the focus on the definition of explosion and fire design loads.