In this chapter we introduce the three case studies which will be pursued through the rest of the book to illustrate concepts, principles and methods. The first of these studies is related to the analysis of working accident data whereas the second relates to the risk assessment of a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant and the third relates to a design of a safety system. Our starting point for the LNG case is the risk assessment process as carried out recently for the plant (Vinnem, 2010). We have, however, made some adjustments, to be in line with the principles studied in this book. For the purpose of this book we consider different approaches for how to carry out the assessments. The presentation only shows excerpts from the assessment; it is simplified, and many numbers have been changed.

Working accidents

In 1999 the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) took the initiative to develop a method in order to assess status and trends for the risk levels in the Norwegian offshore petroleum industry (Vinnem et al., 2006). A method was developed which is based on recording occurrences of near misses and relevant incidents, performance of barriers and results from risk assessments, as well as evaluation of safety culture, motivation, communication and perceived risk. In this book we focus on the analysis related to occupational accidents.