Managing Pipeline Health, Safety and Environmental Risks

The terms “risk assessment” and “risk management” are both commonly used to describe some method of identifying, understanding and controlling risks. In the pipeline industry, risks are encountered and must be addressed at the concept and design phase, construction and commissioning phases and the operations and maintenance phases. Risk assessment is a detailed, systematic examination of any pipeline activity, location or operation system to identify risks, understand the probability and potential consequences of the risks, and to review the current or planned approaches to controlling risks. Risk management is the set of ongoing management and engineering activities to ensure that risks are assessed and controlled to a reasonably achievable, tolerable level. A continuous improvement approach is also required. A wide variety of risk management or loss control activities are in use in the pipeline industry internationally. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss some of these techniques and the benefits to be derived from the application of risk management techniques throughout all phases of pipeline activity. Effective risk management allows organizations to preempt losses and get on top of managed system problems before incidents and accidents occur. After all, the vast majority of the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) problems at work sites are system problems, not operator problems. This paper will present an overview of several risk assessment and risk management techniques to acquaint conference participants with the information needed to select the most appropriate techniques to utilize during the various phases of pipeline development and operation.