Reducing maintenance burden on established facilities through a targeted risk review of safety critical equipment

Abstract

Traditionally, safety critical equipment is identified in the computerised maintenance management system, at a whole- or subsystem level, during detailed design. Once the computerised maintenance management system is commissioned, thousands of equipment tags are identified as safety critical, and the categorisation is rarely looked at holistically again. As an industry, we are constantly working to reduce the maintenance and operating costs of our facilities without compromising safety. A change in operating risk profile of a facility presents an often-overlooked opportunity to achieve this. A risk-based review of safety critical equipment identified in the computerised maintenance management system can allow for reduction of the critical maintenance burden and facility operating costs. For established facilities, a detailed review of safety critical elements and equipment is generally limited to life extension projects or major brownfields modifications. However, over the operating life of a facility the risk profile and risk tolerances may change. This paper considers three potential causes of change and the opportunities that arise. These causes of change include: (i) change in risk profile due to changing operating conditions, e.g. reservoir depletion; (ii) change of operator resulting in a different operational risk appetite; and (iii) changing in industry risk data or methodologies. Applying a targeted risk-based review to the high-value or high-risk safety critical equipment affected by these changes can provide justification of changes to their safety criticality rating. This paper presents a methodology for providing a transparent, risk-based approach to re-classifying safety criticality which aligns with regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations.