Significant insights into risk are routinely missed when certain risk assessment methodologies are used. This article examines some fundamental differences between QRA techniques in terms of how they catch—and potentially miss—important evidence. PIN_October_2019_Risk Management
Topic: Analyses
Analyses, Applications, Myths and Misconceptions, Risk Assessment, Risk Assessment Methodologies, Risk Management, What's New?
“Don’t Worry — We did an ILI”
Many newbies in our industry have never been without the ability to ILI a pipeline. ILI is now considered a normal and essential part of owning and operating many pipelines. However, we should take a moment to make sure we are not losing perspective. Let’s recall our origins. When ILI first became a practical tool, […]
Analyses, Applications, Facilities / tanks / pumps / compressors / appurtenances / etc, Risk Assessment, Risk Management
Life Cycle Risk–An HDD Example
Life cycle risk assessment is an interesting topic in and beyond the integrity management field. This article features a discussion of this special type of risk assessment applied to a certain pipeline installation method, in this case, HDD installation. In previous articles, we’ve discussed some non-regulatory integrity management program applications of pipeline risk assessment (including […]
Avoiding Missteps: Risk vs Rate of Risk
Forming a strategy to mitigate pipeline risks can be complicated by how the length of an asset impacts the numbers. Data and statistics must be carefully considered and interpreted in light of the ‘length’ factor. This article discusses a subtle but critical aspect of understanding risk on a long, linear asset like a pipeline. Risk […]
Seduced by graphics: the myth of risk management by images
While there are a number of visual techniques that can help in interpreting large amounts of data, many graphical analyses provide little to no value for in-depth risk assessment. Here we explore some common graphical techniques and discusses why they can’t replace data analyses in risk management. Seduced by Graphics: The Myth of Risk Management […]
Property Damage vs Release Volume
While we should view database-input information suspiciously, insights may nonetheless emerge. Joel Anderson recently compared the reported property damage costs with the reported release volumes in PHMSA data 2010 to 2018. spill vol vs prop damage cost This is just pipeline spills, excluding tanks, etc. Note this plot is log-log scale so small changes can equate […]
Pipeline Hazardous Liquid Spills Analyses
Liq Spills Analyses Here’s some more interesting work from Joel Anderson: an examination of recent hazardous liquid spill volumes, from the PHMSA reporting databases. Analyses like these not only help us with basic understanding of pipeline releases, but also provide useful input into risk assessments. In many cases, our estimates of location-specific loss potential are […]
Analyzing Risk Estimates
As the practice of pipeline risk assessment continues to advance, we can also focus on the next steps: how do I make sense out of large sets of numbers? what is this risk assessment telling me? Here’s a recent article with some advice: PIN Article: Analyzing Risk Estimates
Optimizing the use of Inspection Results
A limitation that continues to plague older risk assessment methodologies is the inability to fully include the results of inspections. None dispute the value of inspection and its critical role in failure avoidance. Yet, neither the classical statistics-centric QRA nor the common relative risk ranking methodologies, can capture inspection activity in a meaningful way. A […]
CoF Data Analyses
How well do the PHMSA reportable incident consequences track other incident data? More interesting work by Joel Anderson. CoF_multiplot