|
Risk assessment public comments sought DEC plans meetings on methodology assessing Alaska’s oil and gas infrastructure; National Academy of Sciences to hold workshops Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is asking for public comments on the approach developed to assess the health of the state’s oil and gas infrastructure. Public meetings are planned for Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai, Barrow and Valdez prior to the close of public comments June 2.
The Alaska Risk Assessment of Oil and Gas Infrastructure released a proposed methodology designed by a team of Emerald and ABS Consulting March 20.
In addition to the DEC meetings, a peer-review panel from the National Academy of Sciences is reviewing the methodology and will schedule Alaska workshops in May to gather input.
Ira Rosen, DEC project manager, said dates have not yet been set, but the DEC meetings will likely be held in the evening while the National Academy of Sciences workshops may be daytime panel presentations.
Development of the mathematical model to quantify risks is the focus of the first phase of the Alaska Risk Assessment, a three-year, $5 million initiative to evaluate Alaska’s oil and gas infrastructure, a study begun as a result of the spills, leaks and corrosion found on the North Slope in recent years.
Risks identified, ranked When complete, the assessment will report on the status of existing infrastructure, components, systems and hazards. DEC said the study will identify and rank risks based on consequences to state revenue, safety and the environment and will assist the state in making mitigation recommendations.
Physical infrastructure will be partitioned into segments for analysis; preliminary screening will remove segments that do not have potential to create significant consequences from further analysis.
Segments of infrastructure that have potential for significant consequences will be analyzed for both operational (equipment failures due to mechanical failures and human error) and natural hazards.
Results will be summarized as a risk profile.
The proposed risk assessment methodology will be evaluated by the state, the public and an independent third-party reviewer prior to finalization.
DEC has the lead DEC, working in cooperation with the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office, is leading the risk assessment project.
“Finalizing the method we use to evaluate the condition of Alaska’s oil and gas infrastructure is a key step in the overall assessment of this complex system,” Larry Dietrick, DEC director of Spill Prevention and Response, said in a statement.
As part of the project, the state gathered input from government agencies, industry and the public in 2008. Those ideas helped shape the design of the risk assessment model. “Stakeholders now have a chance to confirm issues and concerns they identified have been included in our approach,” Rosen said.
The risk assessment methodology is scheduled to be completed this summer. It will act as a framework for evaluating information on vulnerabilities and safeguards in the state’s oil and gas infrastructure. The overall Alaska Risk Assessment results are expected to be published in 2010.
Copies of the methodology and more information on the project are online at www.dec.state.ak.us/spar/ipp/ara/.
| 