HAZARD & OPERABILITY STUDY (HAZOP)

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

Most industrial licensing authorities and insurance companies require operating companies to carry
out hazard studies and risk assessments during a facility design, as well as prior to construction and
during operation.

The authorities require that the hazard studies be recorded and acted-upon, and that they be subject
to management audit and approval.

SOLUTION

What is HAZOP?

HAZOP study is well-proven structured team-based method for hazard identification at process design
completion or for planned modifications. The technique makes detailed examination of the process
and engineering intention of new or existing facilities to assess the hazard potential of operation outside
the design intention, or malfunction of individual items of equipment and their consequential effects
on the facility as a whole.

HAZOP is led by an experienced facilitator. For an oil & gas project, a core team would typically include
personnel from Process, Instruments, Machines, Project Engineering, and Operations, and it might
require the involvement of process technologists, environmental specialists and corporate Health &
Safety and Environment (HSE) staff for some parts of the work.

What are the key benefits?

Comprehensive hazard identification is the cornerstone of effective risk management since if a hazard
has not been identified then measures can not be put in place to mitigate the risk. A hazard that has
been overlooked can have a significant impact on the overall success of the venture. An effective HAZOP
provides the most penetrating design review, covering safety, environment, operations, and maintenance.

HAZOP ensures that:

• Potential deviations from intended design function are identified and corrected;
• HSE process and equipment hazards are revealed;
• Actions for necessary process or instrumentation improvements can planned;
• Action responses are auditable by Managements and Legislative Inspectorates.

WHY CHOOSE BUREAU VERITAS?

Bureau Veritas has planned, managed, delivered, and reported hundreds of HAZOP studies throughout the world. In many cases these have then been followed by response tracking and response validation, to help ensure that the project is sufficiently acceptable for design completion, procurement, and construction.

Bureau Veritas also has experience in providing personnel to participate in HAZOP studies as engineer or HSE specialist when that is appropriate to the client or designer.