Risk Considerations in LNG Plants Siting

DALESSANDRO A., FORTUNATTI MONTOYA M. Y TONELLI, S.

Río de Janeiro

Exposición; 4ta Conferencia y Exposición Latinoamericana de Seguridad de Procesos del CCPS; 2012

IBP-CCPS(AICHE)

The increasing energy demand in Argentina, and the low development of local sources, has forced the authorities toimport natural gas from overseas. Nowadays, one of the most efficient energy carriers is the Liquefied Natural Gas(LNG). Following this trend, Argentina began to import LNG to be regasified and injected into the existing gasoductnetwork. The conversion from liquid to gas can be done using onshore facilities or regasification ships moored at docksspecially designed for this purpose. In this case, Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FSRU) were chosen toquickly satisfy the increasing demand. At the moment, Argentina has two injection sites located at Ing. White Port(Bahía Blanca) and Escobar Port (Escobar). However, to satisfy the long term demand, new projects of onshore plantsare being considered in Bahía Blanca.This paper considers different aspects included in the risk based land use planning. In order to determine the mostappropriate place for the construction of LNG terminals, QRA techniques (Quantitative Risk Analysis) are used. Twoalternative operation sites in the Bahía Blanca estuary are analyzed. The first one is located at Cuatrero Port, near Gral.Cerri and the second at Rosales Port, near Punta Alta. Advantages and disadvantages such as the presence of otherindustrial facilities; weather conditions (in particular the prevailing wind directions); distance to populated areas;evacuation routes; and distance to be traveled by the LNG carrier are discussed. From the risk level contours, it can beconcluded that both locations are possible provided that the appropriate preventive measures are taken in each case.