Development and prospects of major accident indicators in the offshore petroleum sector

Abstract

In recent years, several major accidents, such as the US Macondo well blowout in 2010, Chinese Bohai Bay oil spills in 2011, Brazilian FPSO Cidade de São Mateus gas explosion in 2015 and Chinese Bohai oil field blowout & fire accident in 2021, have provoked a high awareness that an essential distinction exists between the major accident management and the occupational accident management in the offshore petroleum sector. Further, the urgent need for defining effective major accident indicators is confirmed for the purpose of identifying early warning signals before the major offshore accident occurs. Regrettably, to this day, the offshore petroleum sector has not reached a consensus on the theoretical foundation for the development of effective major accident indicators. This article presents a focused review on the extensive work of the development of major accident indicators in the offshore petroleum sector, including terminologies, assessment criteria for good indicators, development approaches, as well as an overview of current major accident indicators. Following the close scrutiny of this focused review, the strengths and weaknesses of different development approaches are compared. The progress, challenges, suitability and validity of the development of major accident indicators are discussed. On the basis of these insights, future works are suggested to develop effective major accident indicators to better engage on the emerging and complex challenges in preventing major offshore accidents.