Safety Case and Individual Risk Rate

The overall system for safety described above can be called the API System. It is based on a series of API Standards and Recommended Practices which can be summarized as a four step system with each succeeding step encompassing the preceding steps  

Design and maintain a system for process upset detection and shutdown—RP 14C. 

Design and select hardware with known reliability and mechanical integrity to contain pressure and mitigate failure consequences—all other API RP 14 series standards. 

Follow system design concepts, documentation needs and hazards analysis requirements—RP 14J. 

This system has proven to provide adequate levels of safety in the Gulf of Mexico and other similar areas where it is possible to abandon the location during a catastrophic event. In the North Sea where harsh environmental conditions exist, a different approach to safety has evolved which is based on developing a Safety Case and calculating an Individual Risk Rate (IRR) to show that the risk to any individual working in the facility is As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). 

---