Analysis of major risks associated with hydrocarbon storage caverns in bedded salt rock

Chunhe Yang, Wenjun Jing, J.J.K. Daemen, Guimin Zhang and Chao Du

Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 2013, vol. 113, issue C, 94-111

Abstract: Salt rock is internationally accepted as an ideal medium for energy storage. As an energy storage structure, the safety of hydrocarbon storage caverns in salt rock is related to the national economy and to social public security. Risk analysis is an important method of engineering safety evaluation. In this paper the major risks associated with hydrocarbon storage caverns in bedded salt rock are defined. The major risks are classified under the headings of ‘oil and gas leakage’, ‘ground subsidence’, and ‘cavern failure’, and are discussed under these topical titles. The factors leading to the major risks associated with storage caverns are identified by reviewing descriptions of major accidents of salt storage caverns around the world. Fault tree models for the three major risks are established and analyzed. Basic paths of the risk and their occurrence probability ranking are derived. The risk factors which contribute greatly to the risk are identified by calculating the importance degree of all the basic events. Finally, a comprehensive evaluation methodology for major risk loss is generated based on the analytic hierarchy process. This provides a theoretical foundation for the evaluation and prevention of major risks in the construction and operation of storage caverns in bedded salt rock.

Keywords: Risk analysis; Hydrocarbon storage cavern; Bedded salt rock; Oil or gas leakage; Ground subsidence; Cavern failure; Fault tree analysis; Analytic hierarchy process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832013000069
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reensy:v:113:y:2013:i:c:p:94-111

DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2012.12.017

Access Statistics for this article

Reliability Engineering and System Safety is currently edited by Carlos Guedes Soares

More articles in Reliability Engineering and System Safety from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().