Risk assessment of offshore oil and gas activities in the Netherlands

Abstract

Offshore oil and gas activities may lead to a conflict between the protection of the marine environment and health and safety aspects. Priority given to the protection of the marine environment may have an impact on the health or safety of the people working offshore and/or the integrity of the offshore installation. Previous health and safety protection measures are now known to create large-scale effects on the environment, e.g. the application of polychlorinated biphenyls as a cooling medium in transformers and the application of the ozone-depleting halons for efficient fire protection. Risk assessment, taking all health and safety aspects into account, may be the primary mechanism to justify operational procedures agreed by the national authorities as well as by the Exploration and Production industry. Risk assessment of health and safety aspects uses several models which are applied when designing new offshore installations. Several models, which have been developed in the last couple of years, are now available for the assessment of the environmental risk. This paper considers the need for the application of risk assessment with respect to all aspects, health, safety and environment, in order to determine a balanced set of priorities and protection measures.