Acceptance criteria for offshore platforms

A platform complex in the North Sea is used to illustrate development of re liability acceptance criteria. For platforms in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, reliability acceptance criteria have their basis in progressive collapse limit state requirements and impairment/FAR (fatal accident rate) limits. A number of parallel supporting approaches to developing reliabili ty acceptance are presented. These supporting approaches include economic r isk assessment, in particular the ALARP principle (as low as reasonably pra cticable), and historically accepted reliability levels associated with pri or practices and experiences in various offshore operating arenas. The reli ability acceptance criteria are found to be consistent with recommended or implied acceptance criteria in offshore design and assessment practices in other pairs of the world. [S0892-7219(00)01003-7].