Investigating new accident causation, risk assessment, and mitigation strategy selection tools in the petroleum industry

<p>"The inherent complexity of the processes and the volatile nature of petroleum products compel the petroleum industry to continually seek and develop tools and techniques to identify, evaluate, and mitigate potential risks that can negatively impact their process operations. Additionally, government agencies and nonprofit professional societies guide the petroleum industry with regulatory guidelines, standards, and recommended best practices. The industry and these agencies and societies work to improve operational management, to ensure safe working conditions, and to minimize risk of all kinds, so that if failures occur, damage is contained within tolerable limits (Health and Safety Executives, 2013).</p><p>The currently used of both qualitative and quantitative risk assessment tools "fall short in identifying and ranking potential risks" in the petroleum industry and they "fail to demonstrate that risks have been reduced as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP)" (Fitzgerald, 2004, p. 3). Moreover, the tools are "limited to large, complex, and expensive studies" (Fitzgerald, 2004, p. 3). Because accidents due to both human errors and electromechanical failures still occur and result in various consequences, critics have raised concerns about the petroleum industry's safety and risk mitigation credentials and question its ability to prevent major accidents.</p><p>The purpose of this research is to introduce new methods that provide more detailed and structure information to decision makers. They are more robust and easier-to-use so that novice engineers can successfully apply them without experts' need. This dissertation employs the publication option, where the research results are reported by presenting the text of five journal-conference publications."--Abstract, page iv.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D. in Petroleum Engineering

Grantor

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• AlKazimi, Mohammad A.

• Accident Causation
• Crisis Management
• Hazard Analysis
• Risk Assessment
• Risk Mitigation
• Safety Engineering
• Petroleum Engineering

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/doctoral_dissertations/2402

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsmine.mst.edu:doctoral_dissertations-3404