ABSTRACT
The oil and gas industry handle highly inflammable and toxic fluids under severe operating conditions and have high inventories of the same. Given the hazardous nature of its operations, it is important that the industry ensures such facilities are designed, maintained and operated in a safe manner. Bayesian Network (BN) or Bayesian Belief Network is being applied productively as probabilistic risk assessment method in several areas like medicine, computer science, ecology and chemical industry. BN is seen as a viable alternative to and/or complementary Quantitative Risk Assessment methodology. Several accident investigation reports were also studied in detail to analyze the root causes that led to such accidents. An inter-disciplinary approach was required, and materials from many sources were used to understand the application of BN to risk assessments. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
