Design safety to be explored at an upcoming oil and gas conference

Oil and gas operators need to place an even greater emphasis on safety in the design of oil and gas facilities to safeguard against explosion accidents, according to Dr Madhat Abdel-jawad, President of GexCon Australia.

Dr Abdel-jawad will present ‘Safety in Design’, a conference presentation at the Australasian Oil & Gas Exhibition & Conference (AOG) exploring the industry’s understanding of explosions and reviewing some important lessons in explosion risk for oil and gas installations. AOG 2012 will be held at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre 22-24 February.

He said the oil and gas industry has made great strides in the safe design of installations in recent years, but stressed there was still much room for improvement.

“Often you find that this emphasis on safety in design is location and activity dependent. We all can do more in placing emphasis on safety and make it a key design parameter. With ever-improving computing power, we are able to carry out far more detailed analysis of explosion consequences than in the past,” said Dr Abdel-jawad.

GexCon has carried out a number of significant explosion experiments since the 1970s with the aim of increasing understanding of explosion phenomena and has also investigated well-known explosion accidents such as Piper Alpha and Buncefield. Dr Abdel-jawad said industry understanding of explosions has increased dramatically since the 1970s, but a number of problems remained unsolved.

“Large industrial accidents like the Piper Alpha explosion and the Buncefield incident have not only forced us to increase our understanding of explosion phenomena but have resulted in paradigm shifts in the field,” he said.

“But despite our significant leaps forward in understanding, there are several areas where we have a long way to go. Some problems, such as the effect of turbulence on deflagration to detonation transition, will be around for many years to come.”

Dr Abdel-jawad said he hoped conference delegates would come away from his presentation with a greater understanding and awareness of explosion phenomena and some tips on how to design facilities to safeguard against explosions.

His presentation is just one in an entire session dedicated to safety and integrity management at the AOG Conference.

Other highlights will include a presentation from Michael Tooma, Partner at Norton Rose, looking at the design failures at the heart of recent major disasters across the oil and gas, nuclear and mining industries, and a discussion on managing the risks of FLNG (floating liquefied natural gas) with Jeff Baker, Energy Business Manager, Western Australia, Lloyd’s Register Asia.

To register for the conference, visit www.aogexpo.com.au.