An oil platform, offshore platform, or offshore drilling rig is a large structure with facilities for well drilling to explore, extract, store, and process petroleum and natural gas that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms will also contain facilities to accommodate their workforce. Most commonly, oil platforms engage in activities on the continental shelf, though they can also be used in lakes, inshore waters, and inland seas.
Offshore drilling presents environmental challenges, both from the produced hydrocarbons and the materials used during the drilling operation. There are many different types of facilities from which offshore drilling operations take place. These include bottom-founded drilling rigs (jackup barges and swamp barges), combined drilling and production facilities, either bottom-founded or floating platforms, and deepwater mobile offshore drilling units (MODU), including semi-submersibles and drillships. These are capable of operating in water depths up to 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). In shallower waters, the mobile units are anchored to the seabed. However, in deeper water (more than 1,500 metres (4,900 ft)), the semisubmersibles or drillships are maintained at the required drilling location using dynamic positioning.
A typical oil production platform is self-sufficient in energy and water needs, housing electrical generation, water desalinators and all of the equipment necessary to process oil and gas such that it can be either delivered directly onshore by pipeline or to a floating platform or tanker loading facility, or both. Elements in the oil/gas production process include wellhead, production manifold, production separator, glycol process to dry gas, gas compressors, water injection pumps, oil/gas export metering and main oil line pumps.
Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO):
A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. FPSOs can be a conversion of an oil tanker or can be a vessel built specially for the application. A vessel used only to store oil (without processing it) is referred to as a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel.
Process safety Studies
Hazard Identification | Risk Management | HSE Management |
HAZOP (Hazard and Operability Study) | Dispersion / Consequence Analysis | Smoke and Gas Ingress Study |
Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) | Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA) | Emergency Systems Survivability Assessment (ESSA) |
HAZID (Hazard Identification) | Qualitative Risk Analysis | Escape, Evacuation and Rescue Analysis (EERA) |
Hazardous Area Classification | Fire and Gas Detector Location / Mapping Study (3D | Health, Safety and Environmental Critical Equipment Systems (HSECES) |
Emergency Response and Disaster Management Plan (ERDMP) as per PNGRB Rule 2010 | Fire and Explosion Risk Assessment (FERA) | HSE Management System (HSEMS) |
Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA) | ALARP Demonstration, Barrier Based Risk Assessment | HSE Impact Assessment (HSEIA) |
Safety Integrity Level (SIL) Analysis and Verification | Audits – Fire Safety, Safety, Energy etc. | Reliability Availability Maintainability (RAM) |
Flare Simulations | Risk Based Inspection (RBI) | Human Factor Ergonomics (HFE) |
Bow Tie Analysis (BOTA) | Dropped Objects Study (DOS) | Safety Case |
Vent Dispersion | Control Of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) | Temporary Refuge Impairment Analysis (TRIA) |
Simultaneous Operations (SIMOPS) | Noise Study |