Minimizing ad hoc Technical Safety Assessments: Use of AHP for Prioritization of Passive Fire Protection Alternatives

Technical safety assessment is essential for ensuring the asset integrity of oil & gas production & process facilities to prevent accidents and mitigate unwanted consequences. Passive fire protection (PFP) provides technical safety assurance and reduces asset damage by explosion risk and fire spread. Applying the PFP also gives adequate time to escape and for evacuation, thereby reducing casualties and fatalities. The PFP-related decisions have been ad hoc, leading to suboptimal fire protection. This paper presents a systematic multi-criteria decision analysis approach for selecting the most viable PFP option. It demonstrates how to prioritize selecting PFP materials for an offshore topside production and process facility using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The PFP decision hierarchy has been developed using a real-time case study. The possible alternatives are: ‘PFP made of Cellular glass/AES fiber,’ ‘Lambda EasyFLEX/Favuseal wrap-on,’ or ‘not having PFP.’ The decision model considers the following criteria: cost implication, platform weight, space constraints, and risk level to justify the type of PFP and avoid overkill. The findings and the methodology suggested that it is helpful for PFP practitioners to minimize ad hoc prioritization practices in the PFP-related decision analysis.