Dynamic risk analysis of evolving scenarios in oil and gas separator

Abstract

Risk assessment models in the oil and gas (O&G) industry has begun to transform from time-static models like fault tree, event tree or bowtie to dynamic risk assessment (DRA) models, as the latter is able to better capture the real-time-dependent risk behavior of safety barriers. Currently, most existing works on DRA in O&G industry mainly rely on event-driven data, such as failures or accident data from similar systems for risk updating. These data can be collected only when accidents or near-misses have occurred, which limits the prediction capability of the DRA model. To address this drawback, a DRA model is developed in this paper that uses condition-monitoring data for risk updating. A significant advantage of using condition-monitoring data is that the risk can be updated before accidents or failures occur, giving the operation team more time to take preventive actions.The developed approach comprises of an offline and an online phase. In the offline phase, a conventional risk assessment is performed based on fault tree models to calculate the risks at the beginning of the operation. Through the offline analysis, we can also identify the most critical safety barriers by examining their contribution to the risk indexes. Critical safety barriers are selected for condition-monitoring. In the online phase, the condition-monitoring data are used to update the reliability of the safety barriers in real-time based on a sequential Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm using a Bayesian framework. The updated reliabilities of the safety barriers are, then, used in the offline risk assessment model for a DRA.The developed approach is applied for a DRA of liquid carryover from an oil and gas separator to downstream equipment, using real-time data from the separator's safety barriers. The results show that the developed method provides a more accurate representation of the system's performance, enabling early detection of potential failures and reducing uncertainty in risk estimates. The proposed DRA model demonstrated its effectiveness in predicting failures of safety barriers in real-time, giving operational teams ample opportunity to take corrective action. This leads to improved decision-making in the O&G industry, enabling timely response to changes in risk levels. The use of condition-monitoring data enhances the accuracy of risk estimations, representing a crucial advance in DRA applications in the O&G sector.