Ship to ship tanker transfer operations and risk analysis: Probabilistic approach

Due to the construction of larger capacity ships in parallel with the increasing cargo volumes in recent years and the limited number of available ports where these big ships can safely dock; demand for ship to ship transfer tanker operations at sea has increased due to advantages such as being more economical, being able to be carried out at open sea and completing operations in a shorter time. In contrast to routine port berthing maneuverings, berthing maneuvering for ship-to-ship transfer operations, where both ships are in motion and in open sea conditions, contain many risks, unlike the conventional port berthing maneuverings. Considering that the flammable and explosive properties of the petroleum derivative cargoes carried and the access to emergency response services are limited due to the distance from the land where the operation is performed, risk analysis of these berthing operations will ensure that unwanted events can be prevented. Due to the recent history of ship-to-ship transfer operations, academic studies and risk assessments are limited to only a few studies conducted in recent years. For this reason in this study, probabilistic risk analysis of underway ship to ship tanker transfer operations berthing maneuvering carried out by using fault tree analysis and bayes network risk analysis methods, the risks and relationships between the risk that caused the collision accident were tried to be determined.