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Guidance on Risk Analysis and Safety Implications of a Large LNG Spill Over Water - LNG Review 2005
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Sandia National Laboratories
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Originally printed in:
LNG Review
- 2005
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The following steps describe how the safety analysis and risk guidance provided in this article can be used to evaluate options to protect property and public health and safety associated with LNG import terminals and operations.
Step One – Characterising Assets
In the first step, the context of the LNG facility, such as location, site-specific conditions and nominal operations, should be identified and developed. Information that should be collected and considered comprises the following:
- Type and proximity of neighbours, including:
- distance to residential, commercial and industrial facilities or other critical infrastructures such as bridges or tunnels; and
- transit – near or in major ship channel or remote from channel.
Environmental conditions, including:
- wind-driven spill movement and dispersion – prevailing wind direction, speed and variability;
- severe weather considerations – hurricanes, and storm surges;
- tidal-driven spill movement and dispersion – height, current and influence on spill movement and dispersion;
- seismic issues – ground displacement and soil liquefaction; and
- temperature issues – ice and thermal impediment to operations.
Nominal operational conditions, which includes:
- LNG tanker size and design;
- expected frequency of shipments;
- importance of LNG shipments – available storage, seasonal demands and percentage of regional or local supply; and
- transit – additional traffic (near other large ships or pleasure boats) and distance to it, transit near critical infrastructures (such as other terminals, commercial areas or residential areas), the number of critical facilities along transit and the distance to critical facilities along transit.
Step Two – Identifying Potential Threats
In this step, the potential or likely threats expected for the facility, based on site location and relative attractiveness of either an LNG tanker or other nearby targets, should be identified. Accidental event considerations should include shipping patterns, frequency of other large ships, major objects or abutments to be avoided, warning systems and weather impacts on waterways or operations. Intentional event considerations should include threat levels identified by the US Department of Homeland Security, identified threats, past threats and shipping attacks, and difficulty of attack scenarios for a given site. Attractiveness of targets considerations should include impact of an LNG tanker attack, impact on facilities near navigational route and impact on other facilities near site not associated with LNG operations.
Step Three – Determining
Risk Management Goals and Consequence Levels
The third step is about identifying risk management goals and consequence levels for LNG operations, including potential property damage and public safety (including injury limits). The goals and levels would be set in co-operation with stakeholders, public officials and public safety officials. A range of potential risk management goals and consequence levels should be evaluated. In this way, an assessment of the range of potential costs, complexity and needs for different risk management options can be compared and contrasted. Common risk management goals and consequence level considerations should include:
- allowable duration of a loss of service and ease of recovery;
- economic impact of a loss of service;
- damage to property and capital losses from a spill and loss of service; and
- impact on public safety from a spill – potential injuries and deaths.
Categories:
LNG
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Gas Processing
,
Plant Operations Management
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