(88f) Comparison of US Risk-Based Approach with the Rest of the World for LNG

This paper compares the United States' ?risk based? approach to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) with that of the rest of the world. Regardless of the country, the risk management methodologies remain largely unchanged but experiences in each individual country remarkably mirror their form of government or regulatory administration. For example, in certain European jurisdictions public safety risks are regulated against finite safety criteria that focus the policy discussion on quantifiable risks and effective solutions. In the US, however, the approach to carry out consequence assessments which are at times incorrectly referred to as risk assessments, while Hong Kong, Canada, and Australia mandate the use of widely accepted and scientifically based risk criteria which are applied to the projects. The risk-based approach, taking into account both the event likelihood and the event consequence, is an alternative to the pure consequence-based approach. The risk based approach is the only way to effectively mitigate against those incidences that can cause harm to workers, third parties and to the asset. The different risk based approaches applied to the LNG industry in different regions are outlined fully in this paper.