A safety barrier-based risk control method of blowouts in arctic drilling operations

With the melting glaciers in recent years, the Arctic area has received increasing attention from academia and industry due to its huge resources. Increasing oil and gas drilling activities can be observed in Arctic areas. One of the most critical accidents associated with these operations is the blowout. Consequently, effective risk management of blowouts in Arctic drilling operations is imperative. This paper presents a safety barrier-oriented approach for managing blowout risks during Arctic drilling operations. The approach begins by identifying the unique characteristics of Arctic drilling blowouts and analyzing specific risk factors that augment those typically associated with conventional offshore blowouts. Subsequently, a safety barrier-based risk control method is developed, which utilizes a bow-tie model integrating both fault tree and event tree methodologies. The effectiveness of this method is partially validated through the analysis of a hypothetical blowout scenari o in the Arctic, where key risk-influencing factors are identified. The results indicate that the proposed safety barrier-based risk control method effectively identifies and mitigates blowout risks in Arctic regions. Moreover, this method shows potential fo r application in other offshore and maritime operations.