SPILL PREVENTION PRIORITY ANALYSIS FOR REDUCING ACCIDENTAL RELEASE RISKS DURING PIPELINE TRANSPORT

BERRIN TANSEL
MONALI NAKHATE
ORHAN SEVIMOGLU


DOI: 10.2190/81DE-F9G6-XV7T-7PTX

Abstract

Spill risk during pipeline transportation is about 4 times higher in comparison to transportation by barges, and about 7 times higher in comparison to transport by rail. Since accidental spills cannot be eliminated, efforts to reduce risks of accidental releases during pipeline transportation and adequacy of the resources allocated for managing accidental releases should be periodically evaluated. A simple risk assessment technique was developed to evaluate the risks of leakage during pipeline transportation. The spill prevention priority analysis (SPPA) developed in this study is a flexible, risk based approach which can be used to develop strategies to gradually reduce spills during pipeline transport. The method developed incorporates failure probabilities, detection capabilities for failures, and significance of the consequences due to a spill to estimate a set of spill prevention priority numbers (SPPN) for possible failure modes which could lead to a spill. The relative magnitudes of the SPPNs can be used for development of risk management strategies and in decision making for allocating resources to reduce the spill risks to acceptable levels.

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