Implementing Best Available and Safest Technologies for Offshore Oil and Gas.
Abstract
The government needs to determine an acceptable level of risk for offshore operations that is consistent with national policy. For the purpose of its work, the panel assumed that the acceptable level of risk for offshore operations is zero accidents, zero deaths, and zero oil spills--though this goal may not be attainable. The panel realizes that neither the law nor any government regulation can prevent all possible accidents or malfunctions in complex systems such as offshore oil and gas production facilities. While it is an incontrovertible fact that offshore oil and gas production equipment has earned a remarkable record for safety in the past 25 years, human performance has often been attributed as a cause of failures and mishaps. The BAST requirement is limited to technologies on the OCS and is not designed to mitigate human errors. This leads to the second issue, which is the problem of calculating incremental benefits and costs related to obtaining a desired level of risk. These problems are discussed in detail in the report.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA075536
Entities
Organizations
- National Research Council