Innovative New Tools for Automating Safe Charts as Required for API RP 14C

API RP 14C, published by the American Petroleum Institute, specifies the requirements for the analysis, design, installation and testing of surface safety systems for offshore production platforms. While the document is a "recommended practice", adherence to its recommendations in U.S. waters is mandated by regulatory requirements. In short, API RP 14C identifies the minimum amount of safety devices to be installed to protect personnel, the environment, and the production facility from threats to safety caused by the production process. As stated in Paragraph 3.2 of API RP 14C, "The release of hydrocarbons is a factor in almost all threats to safety. Thus, the major objective of the safety system should be to prevent the release of hydrocarbons from the process and to minimize the adverse effects of such releases if they occur." The basic premise is that proper analysis and evaluations are to be performed to identify potential hazards or threats. A number of methodologies are used to perform a safety analysis, one of which is the Safety Analysis Function Evaluation (SAFE) Charts. Today there are tools which help automated this typically extensive and manual process. This paper will describe one such tool that helps users automate these tasks along with coordinating the requirements of API 14C along with the recently released functional safety standards IEC 61511 and ANSI/ISA S84-2004.