TRAINING

Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA)

Training Objectives

Layer of protection analysis (LOPA) is a semi-quantitative tool for analysing and assessing risk on a process plant. It uses an order of magnitude technique to evaluate the adequacy of existing or proposed layers of protection against known hazards.

The course will help you understand how significant scenarios are categorised and tolerable frequencies assigned for identified hazardous events. You will also learn to assign risk categories and determine how many Independent Protection Layers (IPLs) should be in place. The course also covers the specification and requirements for a protection layer to be accepted as an IPL.

Training Subjects

• When and how to use LOPA
• How to identify which scenarios from a HAZOP or other qualitative analysis could benefit from LOPA
• How to systematically create risk scenarios for new processes or for existing processes under change
• How to establish risk tolerance criteria for use within your company and how to depict this in a risk matrix or in a formula
• Understand what is meant by “independence” and “uniqueness” with respect to the safeguard layers (IPLs)
• How to calculate the value of each IPL
• How to determine the risk of a LOPA scenario and how to determine how much further risk reduction (if any) is necessary
• How to use LOPA to determine the safety integrity level (SIL) necessary for safety instrumented systems
• How to document LOPA
• How other companies worldwide use LOPA to:

1. Decide which PHA/HAZOP recommendations to reject and which to accept
2. Focus limited resources within mechanical integrity departments and operations on what is critical to manage risk to ALARP
3. Avoid wasting resources on the added cost and unproductive sophistication that often occurs when they instead quantify risk using QRA methods such as fault tree and event tree analysis
4. Perform specialized risk modelling for facility siting questions