Upstream OG Managers and Controls Designers: Seven Reasons that ISA 84 is Significant

摘要

The ISA 84.00.01-2004 (S84, Ref 1) functional safety standard that was approved on September 2, 2004 holds some very promising benefits that should not be ignored by those involved in the upstream oil and gas industry. With the domestic oil and gas industry's expansion into more demanding areas such as deep gas and deepwater production it is evident that additional process complexity and risks are introduced that are not suitably addressed by RP 14C (API RP 14C, Ref 2). Although RP 14C is still required by the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) for U.S. Gulf of Mexico operations, the new ISA 84 standard can support the "big picture" where the prescribed solution falls short. ISA 84 is a performance standard that should be used as an advisory standard in domestic waters and as the primary design template for all international platforms in countries that have not adopted IEC 61511. After covering the general background of both standards and the safety lifecycle (SLC) approach of ISA 84, the authors will provide a persuasive argument to embrace ISA 84. The highlighted benefits will include: 1. Proper front-end selection of protection devices; 2. Current testing intervals may be lengthened while providing greater safety levels than obtained with RP 14C; 3. There should be decrease of "specification errors" & resulting accidents; 4. Besides personnel safety, equipment, and environmental consequences, impacts of production and corporate image losses can be quantified and included for a higher justification; 5. Process Hazard Analysis reviews should be more precise (i.e. "Realistic"); 6. Production benefits by uncovering embedded reliability issues; 7. This standard can be applied internationally and across multiple process industries (i.e. O&G, pipeline, refining, and chemical industries).