Assessment of Hydrocarbon Explosion and Fire Risks in Offshore Installations: Recent Advances and Future Trends

Abstract

This article presents a review of the state-of-the-art technologies used in assessing the risk of hydrocarbon explosions and fires in offshore installations. Both qualitative and quantitative risk assessment approaches are described, and the modelling techniques employed in the quantitative assessment of explosions and fires are presented. Procedures developed through a joint industry project on the explosion and fire engineering of floating, production, storage and offloading units (abbreviated hereafter as EFEF JIP) led by the authors are introduced. This article does not attempt to survey the literature, but rather to summarise recent advances and future trends in terms of the technological aspects of the risk assessment of offshore installations subject to explosions and fire.