Abstract
The increase of oil production in most oil companies is based on offshore facilities. These installations are characterized by high density of equipment and piping and, in most situations, elevated production capacity. Direct impacts of such characteristics are: risk increase associated with hydrocarbon releases, reduced time for evacuation and the requirement of specific safety systems, assuring safe evacuation of the personnel.
This paper presents and discusses the methodology used for simulating gas releases and dispersion inside offshore facilities, as well as fire accidents. Based on practical examples, it will be analyzed how those computational analyses can be used to optimize the overall safety level, reducing the consequences of fires and explosion, and preventing other types of problems -such as high temperature over the Helideck or high concentration of smoke, avoiding the use of the fire-fighting system. Significant results obtained in the last 20 years of analysis are discussed for Semi-submersible and Fixed Platforms, FSO and FPSO, with plants capable of processing from 15,000 to 200,000 barrels per day.
