Petroleum Pipelines and Facilities
Page Index
Services provided by Resources Safety
Resources Safety provides safety regulatory services and technical advice regarding:
- Proposed pipeline projects
- Conditions to be imposed by the Department of Mines and Petroleum on pipeline licences
- Construction and operations safety cases (and safety case revisions)
- Safety case implementation and life cycle performance.
Safety case overview
The pipeline or facility safety case emphasises consultation, employee participation and a goal-setting approach to safety, rather than prescriptive rules.
A safety case for a pipeline or facility is a detailed document that outlines the types of safety studies undertaken, the results of those studies and the safety management arrangements.
The safety case is divided into three distinct, but related parts:
- Facility description
- Formal Safety Assessment (FSA)
- Safety Management System (SMS).
The objective of a safety case is to demonstrate, through written description, that an operator of an onshore pipeline or facility has an SMS in place. The SMS must be capable of systematically and continually identifying hazards, assessing them, and eliminating or minimising the risks to people, to a level which is as low as reasonably practicable.
Risk assessment methods
Quantitative and qualitative risk assessment techniques
Quantitative and qualitative risk assessment techniques are used in the development of the formal safety assessment section of pipeline or facility safety cases.
At the highest level, risk is assessed purely qualitatively and relies on engineering judgement. Such an assessment is best suited to:
- Risk ranking of different concept options where the level of design definition is at its minimum
- Establishing indicative levels of risk for part or complete pipelines or facilities
- Initial screening to eliminate trivial potential hazards prior to detailed quantitative assessment.
Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) is considerably more detailed and involves the estimation of event frequencies and risks. There are also different levels of detail for individual QRAs, although the overall approach is always broadly the same.
Methodology for risk identification and assessment of risks
With risk assessment emerging as an important engineering discipline and acceptable risk criteria prescribed in some Australian States (including WA), the Pipeline Committee of Standards Australia (ME/38), incorporated in AS2885 (Part 1 Issue 2007) a uniform methodology for risk identification and assessment of risks associated with pipelines. A qualitative approach was adopted in this standard, whereby threats to the pipeline integrity are systematically identified, and corresponding risks assessed throughout its entire length. To assist better understanding and to outline the clearly detailed safety management requirements of the standard, a companion document (SAA HB105-1998) was also developed.
Standards are available from SAI Global.
