THE DEVELOPMENT OF A TOTAL HAZARD CONTROL PLAN FOR AN LNG SITE

Abstract

Australia's North West Shelf Project is based on the development of major gas reserves discovered in the early 1970s in deep water some 130 km off the coast from Dampier, Western Australia.

The project was developed in two phases. The Domestic Gas Phase, completed in 1984, supplies pipeline gas to the State Energy Commission of Western Australia for distribution in the south-west of the State. The Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Phase involves the export of LNG to eight Japanese power and gas utilities under 20-year Sale and Purchase Agreements. The production and export of LNG commenced in 1989.

A Total Hazard Control Plan (THCP) has been developed for the project's onshore and offshore facilities to ensure that all hazards which could affect public safety outside the plant boundary are identified and controlled for the life of the site.

The THCP applies to all sites, including the trunkline, onshore gas treatment plant, King Bay supply base and North Rankin A offshore platform. The objectives of the THCP are: to identify the hazards that exist together with their potential consequences; to list the policies and procedures which control the hazards and assign responsibility within the organisation to ensure that those policies and procedures are implemented; to provide verifiable assurance to Government that the Project Operator, Woodside, comprehensively and systematically controls all foreseen hazards to public safety, at the level of 'reasonably practicable'.

Compliance with the THCP is verified using a structured auditing programme involving both internal and external audits.