OFFSHORE RISK ASSESSMENT

Offshore Risk Assessment or Quantitative Risk Assessment of Offshore Structures

Offshore Risk Assessment

Introduction

Risk assessment is the initial step in the risk management process and the one that is perhaps not only the most difficult to execute but also most subject to error. (Turner and Gelles 2003, 4-9) During the past 30 years, reliability-based risk assessment and management processes have been developed and applied in assessing and maintaining the integrity of a worldwide infrastructure of offshore structure systems. These systems are characterised as a combination of structures, hardware/equipment, operating personnel, organisations, environments and the interfaces between these components. Background on current and future trends in development of comprehensive programmes to help improve the quality and reliability of offshore structure systems are outlined. The importance and characteristics of human and organizational factors are discussed. A combination of proactive, reactive and interactive approaches have been developed that employ three strategies to achieve desirable quality and reliability: reduce likelihood of malfunctions, increase detection and correction of malfunctions, and decrease the effects and consequences of malfunctions. Through risk assessment, BP decision makers determine whether the potential benefits of the policy outweigh the accompanying risks. After the risks of a course of action have been identified and weighed, BP management should formulate policy based on their assessment about offshore structures.

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to discuss offshore risk assessment at Gulf of Mexico.

Research Question

Q. What are possible offshore risk assessment techniques that we can apply in the current situation within Gulf of Mexico?

Literature Review

Challenges in Risk Assessment

One of the first challenges in risk assessment is identifying all the possible risks and benefits of a course of action. Often a policy can lead to unforeseen consequences that change the final balance of risk and reward.

Case Study: Gulf of Mexico

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig blast that triggered a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has habitually been recounted as a convoluted accident (http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=40&contentId=7061813). Now we're eventually getting a glimpse into just how convoluted it actually was. BP distributed this week the first minutia of its interior enquiry into what initiated Transocean's oil rig to blow up and BP's deep-sea well to fail. What BP has found out so far can only be recounted as one warm mess.

BP pinpointed seven components assisting to the misfortune that cover the gamut of procedures on the rig. In short, this wasn't a case of ...