An Engineering Contractor's Perspective on API RP 75 and RP 14J
Authors: Arnold Kenneth E. , Breskr Richard A. , Sikes Carlton T. 
Published: October 2008

Introduction

In 1993 the API published API RP 75, "Recommended Practices for Development of a Safety and Environmental Management Program for OuterContinental Shelf (OCS) Operations and Facilities," (SEMP). As a parallel effort and incorporated into RP 75 by reference, API RP 14J. "Recommended Practice for Design and Hazard Analysis for Offshore Production Facilities, " was developed to provide more detailedguidance into two of the eleven elements of SEMP; Safety and Environmental Information, and HazardsAnalysis. The RP 14J Committee, after some deliberation, felt these issues should not be addressed in isolation, and included tutorial information on safety concepts including basic facilities design concepts, hazard mitigation and evacuation concepts, and layoutconsiderations.

Thus, the two documents taken together, have the potential to impact engineering consultant in several ways:change designs from what was considered acceptable in the past,increase effort required to document that the designs meet safety requirements,increase the effort required to check a design and formalized this process into a "hazard analysis,"decrease the effort that would have been required to conform to "Safety Case" type requirements, which were being considered prior to the development of these documents,increase the effort required to specify and inspect new equipment, andprovide training materialto design engineers to assure that safety is designed into the facility from the outset rather than relying on hazard analysis to find design errors once a phase of design is complete..

This paper discusses each of these potential impacts and concludes that the biggest impact on engineering consultants is that SEMP results in much less work for engineering consultants than would have had to be performed if one of the alternate schemes for assuring adequate safety had been adopted by regulatory bodies. That is, while there has been some marginal increase for engineering services on specific new projects and to document adequacy of existing facilities as a result of SEMP, the net effect is less work for engineering companies to implement these recommendations than would have been required if SEMP had not been developed..

On the other hand, by focusing attention on the human factors of managing safety and away from those factors (hardware design and construction) which are normally associated with the province of most engineering consultants, these documents should increase safety. In addition, by being more cost effective than the alternative schemes that had been under discussion, SEMP should allow reserves to be developed that would not otherwise have been possible and thus, in the long run, increase opportunities for engineering consultants..

Changes to "Acceptable" Designs

RP 14J provides a wealth of material as to what constitutes good design practices. Section 2 describes the basic principles involved in containing hydrocarbons, preventing ignition, preventing fire escalation, andproviding for personnel protection and escape. Detailed recommendations in each of these areas are made in Section 3, 4 and 5 as shown in Table I. In particular, specific recommendations are made for the design of vent, flare and emergency relief systems.