While North American pipeline integrity codes and regulations provide substantive prescriptive or goal setting objectives, there currently is not a consistent measurement approach for defining the levels of safety achieved. Standardized targets would drive consistent operator safety culture, enhance transparency for the public, and focus industry collaboration on technologies and innovation.
This paper provides the perspective of an operator on current status of where the pipeline industry is related to safety targets and social license in addition to where the pipeline industry could go in this arena. The intent is a ‘call to action’ for the leaders in the pipeline industry to collaborate on the establishment of the technical systems which define the current industry safety condition, the targets that must be achieved, and to show that the industry is innovating for further improvements; elements considered to be important to the achievement of social license.
A review of the current practices as well as a framework for industry advancement and advocacy will be explained. This will include an examination of safety measurement systems from around the world including other notable industries such as aviation and nuclear. Several measurement models will be highlighted including qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative. Importantly, this paper will highlight how operators, regulators, and codes organizations can link together for this common purpose and contribute to “social license”.
