The design of BP ETAP platform against gas explosions

Risks of personal injury from gas explosion, together with fire and smoke i ngress, were among the key hazards that the Eastern Trough Area Project (ET AP) team intended to design out as far as possible. This paper describes th e process ETAP followed to achieve this. The process involved the early app lication of the appropriate advance technology and personnel at the concept selection stage and right through different stages during design, and an i ntegrated team including explosion specialists. All major design decisions on explosion optimisation were made at the early stage of front-end engineering design (FEED), resulting in a relatively st raightforward detailed design phase. These early design decisions had the e ffect of not only reducing gas explosion consequences, but simplifying layo ut, e.g. reducing pipe run and structures. The end result is a design which gives inherently low risk to personnel and Temporary Refuge impairment wit hout the uncertainties of high cost of late remedial work to take account o f high explosion loads, and consequent project delay. (C) 1999 Elsevier Sci ence Ltd. All rights reserved.