Italian underground gas storage activities: risk management and safety aspects

Abstract

The underground storage of natural gas is an industrial process that consists of injecting gas into a depleted underground rock system to ensure its accumulation and subsequently deliver it in a second phase. The scope of the paper is to provide technical support in the safety analysis evaluation of underground natural gas storage establishments, aiming to achieve uniformity of evaluation throughout the national territory, under the Seveso III directive. The main issues concern: Italian law and legal requirements; information about the establishment and the company organizational structure; information on classification of substance under the Seveso directive; industrial safety of the plants, with the relative identification of the critical technical systems; methodological approach for assessing the risk analysis of plants, including the NaTech risk. Some references are finally given to identify the most “critical” parameters of the different techniques for risk analysis, which, if not adequately evaluated, can lead to an incorrect result of the analysis itself, also considering the correct safety measures to prevent or limit the consequences of an accident scenario, and about the proper implementation of the Safety Management System.