Decision Support Model for Fire Insurance Risk Analysis in a Petrochemical Case Study

A decision support system was researched and applied to a case study in the petrochemical industry. The participants were an insurance company underwriting the policies of oil and gas refineries located in a major oil producing nation. The Chemical Process Quantitative Risk Analysis methodology was applied as a framework to implement uncertainty quantification and risk analysis using a specialized commercial DSS software product. A gas vapor explosion was simulated at an oil refinery, to predict the fire and radiation damage. Costs and risks were entered into the model based on historical data. Loss estimates were generated for equipment and buildings located various distances (pressures) from the explosion origin. Overall, the DSS model predicted an expected loss of over $14,000,000 USD for equipment located in the 50 meter explosion radius, which represented a loss ratio of almost 52%. The losses predicted from the DSS model were comparable to the literature and to experiences of the case study company. The margin of error from the DSS model was less than ±5% which made it very reliable according to benchmarks.