The Assessment of ‘Vulnerability-Capability’ in oil transportation: Application to an Oil Pipeline

On Nov.22, 2013, the light oil of a leaking pipeline in Qingdao Sinopec was ignited and then deflagrated. More than sixty people were killed in this catastrophe. Subsequently, the adjacent coastal waters were polluted. Based on the accident, a dual model of vulnerability assessment in oil transportation system is established in this paper. The extension derives from the vulnerability assessment guideline of the American petroleum institute (API), originally developed by the authors to introduce the assessment of terrorist among the chemical industry. Several major changes have been made, mainly in the source of threat, the content of vulnerability and the detail of procedure. In the first part, an assessment mode is proposed. And a practical application is discussed in the second part. An approach of ‘vulnerability-capability’ assessment is used to identify the risk factors and analyze the risk level of this pipeline based on the accident. A new thought of security assessment through setting up a comprehensive assessment model based on vulnerability-capability is put forward. It approves that it is of great significance and reference value for the security assessment on oil pipeline.

Keywords: security; vulnerability; capability; risk; pipeline