Analyzing the critical risk factors in oil and gas pipelines projects regarding the perceptions of the stakeholders

Abstract

Oil and Gas Pipeline (OGP) projects face a wide range of Risk Factors (RFs) at the design, construction and operational stages of the project particularly because of Third Party Disturbance (TPD) in the insecure environments. The lack of risk information and the root causes of pipelines’ failures are hindering the efforts of managing these risks. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the existing risk factors and recommend an effective Risk Mitigation Methods (RMMs) based on a holistic approach from the prospect of stakeholders’ interest. An investigation was carried out to identify the critical RFs and existing RMMs in different circumstances to overcome the problem of the historical records about the RFs and RMMs. The findings of the literature review were used to design a questionnaire survey to analyze RFs and evaluate the “usability and effectiveness” of the RMMs. The RFs were ranked by using Risk Index (RI) method based on the probability and severity levels of each RF. The survey results revealed that sabotage and terrorism as part of TPD, corruption and insecure areas are the most critical RFs, whereas, anti-corrosion efforts, underground pipelines and technologically advanced risk monitoring systems are the most effective RMMs. These ranking are vary based on the occupation of the stakeholder in OGPs; like the planners and the researchers said corruption is the most critical RF, and the researchers said that the advance risk monitoring systems are the most effective RMM.