Acceptance Criteria for Offshore Platforms

Abstract

A platform complex in the North Sea is used to illustrate development of reliability acceptance criteria. For platforms in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, reliability acceptance criteria have their basis in progressive collapse limit state requirements and impairment/FAR (fatal accident rate) limits. A number of parallel supporting approaches to developing reliability acceptance are presented. These supporting approaches include economic risk assessment, in particular, the ALARP principle (as low as reasonably practicable), and historically accepted reliability levels associated with prior practices and experiences in various offshore operating arenas. The reliability acceptance criteria are found to be consistent with recommended or implied acceptance criteria in offshore design and assessment practices in other parts of the world. [S0892-7219(00)01003-7]