Offshore pipeline system—How to decide the optimal redundancies using reliability engineering

Abstract The problem of deciding the optimal redundancies for a system of offshore pipelines was faced by using the method of reliability analysis to estimate the probable overall management costs in the various alternative hypotheses. To perform the analysis a survey of the available information was carried out regarding the behaviour of the offshore pipeline system existing in the Gulf of Mexico and in the North Sea and a calculation programme was prepared capable of foreseeing the most probable operating condition of the system under examination in the various configurations and of evaluating the relative probable annual management costs.