(70x) Operational Risk Management Aided By Continuous Monitoring of Barriers

To assist in reducing the occurrence of accidents, risk management experts from the oil and gas exploration and production industry have been suggesting the continuous monitoring of the dynamic conditions of the preventive and mitigating barriers. This work presents a case study of a pilot project that aimed to achieve this goal, in order to support decision-making in integrated management of safety, operation and maintenance. The chosen scenario for the project was a subprocess of the natural gas processing system of a stationary production unit of the Santos Basin in Brazil. The project execution comprised three distinct phases: the first was a review of the risk analysis applied to the subprocess, the second concerned the application of the bow-tie method to the accidental hypotheses established by risk analysis, and the third was the definition of the rules and the measurable criteria to be used for continuously monitoring each of the control measures of the barriers´ degrading factors. Part of an effort to manage operational risks more effectively, the main purpose of the project was to provide a constantly updated view of the actual level of risk that operations are subject to, based on the continuous evaluation of the integrity of barriers, enabling operational management to establish objective risk acceptance criteria.