Environmental risk influencing factors for petroleum drilling in the western Barents Sea

Abstract

Offshore petroleum drilling in harsh and cold environment, like in the Barents Sea, can be challenging and risky due to the prevailing weather condition. How the physical environment affects systems, components, and working environment has to be enlightened in order to operate safely. The vulnerable environment, remoteness, and possible outcomes if an accident occurs are of great concern. The society, the regulatory authority, and involved industries such as fishery, expect and demand that the risk shall be in an acceptable limit. The thesis will looks into one specific area in the Barents Sea; the location is south and east from the Bjørnøya Island. The main objective is to find important environmental risk influencing factors that influences the safety of petroleum drilling in the region. The purpose of this is to find vulnerable areas and to state if it is possible to achieve an acceptable risk level for drilling operation in the region. The scope will be to look at factors that may affect the drilling process. The thesis is delimited to only consider environmental risk influencing factors that may affect the topside drilling process. The methodology used in this thesis is mainly theoretical. It is a literature study where existing acts, regulations, experience, and technology regarding the topic is analysed and compared with the physical environment in the region. The analysis performed in the thesis indicates that there is several environmental risk influencing factors that may influence drilling operations in the Western Barents Sea. The interaction of the risk influencing factors are complex and can in many situations have a negative synergy effect on systems, components, equipment, and working environment. Based on the risk evaluation performed in the thesis, the risk level for drilling operations will be within an acceptable limit if it is optimized. It is possible to reduce the risk to an acceptable limit if the drilling season is narrowed to summers or if winterized structures are used.

Keywords: Arctic, Risk, Barents Sea, Drilling, Petroleum, RIF, Influencing factors, Safety, Arctic technology, Cold climate