Fire and Blast Information Group

The Fire and Blast Information Group (FABIG) is a not-for-profit, membership based organization created in the UK in 1992 in the wake of the Piper Alpha disaster to continue the sharing and dissemination of expert knowledge on fires and explosions arising from the major research projects carried out in the early 1990s.

FABIG logo

FABIG has become an internationally recognized body for the development and dissemination of guidance for hydrocarbon fires and explosions for offshore platforms and onshore petrochemical plants.[1]

The mission of FABIG is to disseminate knowledge and best practice and to develop guidance on the prevention and mitigation of fires and explosions and on the protection of facilities and personnel against fires and explosions.[2]

FABIG Membership comprises 85 member organizations worldwide derived from the oil and gas industry and including oil and gas companies, consultants, contractors, regulators, verifiers, manufacturers and university researchers. All the supermajors are members of FABIG.[3]

History

[4] On 6 July 1988, the Piper Alpha disaster claimed the lives of 167 people and destroyed the Piper Alpha platform. The accident, which is the worst offshore accident to date, drew the attention of the offshore industry and the regulators to the damage that could arise in the event of an explosion and fire on an offshore platform, and triggered changes that have shaped the current offshore regulatory and operating environment.

Following the recommendations of the public inquiry led by Lord Cullen which followed Piper Alpha, the Offshore Safety Division (OSD) was created in April 1991 within the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to take responsibility for safety of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), and the Safety Case Regulations 1992 (SCR 92) [5] came into force on 30 November 1993. The SCR 92 have been the key instrument of new the goal setting regime for the UK offshore industry.

The offshore industry responded to the challenges presented by the disaster through initiatives including joint industry projects sponsored by organizations with full scale fire and/or explosion tests. The first major research project that followed the Piper Alpha disaster was Phase 1 of the Joint Industry Project on Blast and Fire Engineering for Topside Structures (BFETS) that was undertaken between May 1990 and July 1991. It resulted in 26 reports that summarized the industry understanding of fire and explosion engineering and in the release of the Interim Guidance Notes (IGN). These guidelines were called "interim" due to fast changing design concepts and the numerous gaps in understanding of loading and resistance to explosion and fire that were highlighted in BFETS Phase 1.

FABIG was created within this context of research and change of the offshore industry in March 1992, with a view to continue the dissemination of information on hydrocarbon fires and explosions and be the main forum for discussion of fire and blast issues. The FABIG activities have been running since 1992. The topics covered by FABIG has expanded to cover onshore fire and explosion issues as well as human factors, integrity management of ageing assets, LNG and hydrogen.

Activities

FABIG activities are aimed at practitioners involved in the design, operation and inspection of offshore installations and onshore petrochemical plants. FABIG organizes Technical Meetings and publishes Technical Notes and Technical Newsletters for the dissemination of knowledge and best practice on fire and explosion issues.

Technical meetings

FABIG has organized more than 55 technical meetings comprising presentations from industry experts covering fire and explosion issues such as design of structures and equipment against fires and explosions, risk assessment, mitigation systems, fire and explosion modelling, dispersion modelling, human factors, integrity management of ageing assets, compliance with regulations, LNG, key performance indicators, etc.[6]

The results of the Joint Industry Project Phase 1 on the Buncefield Explosion Mechanism were disseminated for the first time at the FABIG Technical Meeting of June 2009. The meeting attracted the largest audience for a FABIG Technical Meeting with more than 350 delegates.[7]

Technical Notes

The FABIG Technical Notes are used within the oil and gas industry and contain step-by-step procedures and worked examples for the design of topside structures and onshore plants against fires and explosions. The list of published FABIG Technical Notes (TN) is as follows:[8]

  • TN 01 Fire Resistant Design of Offshore Topside Structures
  • TN 02 Explosion Mitigation Systems
  • TN 03 Use of Ultimate Strength Techniques for Fire Resistant Design of Offshore Structures
  • TN 04 Explosion Resistant Design of Offshore Structures
  • TN 05 Design Guide for Stainless Steel Blast Walls
  • TN 06 Design Guide for Steel at Elevated Temperatures and High Strain Rates
  • TN 07 Simplified Methods for Analysis of Response to Dynamic Loading
  • TN 08 Protection of Piping Systems subject to Fires and Explosions
  • TN 09 Human Factors Guide
  • TN 10 An Advanced SDOF Model for Steel Members Subject to Explosion Loading: Material Rate Sensitivity
  • TN 11 Fire Loading and Structural Response
  • TN 12 Vapour Cloud Development in Over-filling Incidents
  • TN 13 Design Guidance for Hydrocarbon Fires

Technical Newsletters

FABIG publishes technical newsletters comprising articles from industry experts on research programmes, projects and case studies. More than 50 FABIG newsletters have been published.[9]

FABIG website

The FABIG website is aimed at being a 'one stop shop' for fire and blast related information. Developed as part of a Joint Industry Project carried out by FABIG and sponsored by OGP and Oil and Gas UK, a Technical Directory has been put on the FABIG website within the 'Regulations', 'Technical Information' and 'Accidents' sections. It provides the following information:[10]

  • A summary of the onshore and offshore oil and gas regulatory environment and relevant legislation for hydrocarbon fires and explosions in the United Kingdom, Norway and USA.[11]
  • Listings of the relevant standards/approved codes of practice, listings and abstracts (where available) of technical how-to-do guidance and research publications indexed as per the following topics:[12]
    • Fire and explosion hazard management
    • Human factors
    • Consequence and numerical modelling
    • Explosion loading and response
    • Fire loading and response
    • Equipment/piping loading and response
    • Prevention, detection, control and mitigation systems
    • Emergency, evacuation and rescue
  • Listing of major onshore and offshore accidents resulting from fires and explosions together with information on reports and websites. For each accident, an overview including a description, the consequences and the lessons learnt is provided.[13]

References
  1. FABIG Website, About FABIG
  2. FABIG Website, FABIG Mission and Objectives
  3. FABIG Website, FABIG Members
  4. Article R607, FABIG Technical Newsletter Issue 49 (Special 15th Anniversary Edition), Feb 2008
  5. The Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 1992, SI 1992/2885
  6. FABIG Website FABIG Technical Meeting Reviews
  7. HSE Science and Research Outlook The Buncefield Explosion Mechanism Archived 2 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  8. FABIG Website FABIG Technical Notes
  9. FABIG Website FABIG Newsletters
  10. HSE Science and Research Outlook Launch of a Fire and Blast Technical Directory on the FABIG website Archived 11 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  11. FABIG Website FABIG Technical Directory - Regulations
  12. FABIG Website FABIG Technical Directory - Technical Information
  13. FABIG Website FABIG Technical Directory - Accidents
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