Does the 2024 version of the NORSOK Z-013 Standard Bridge the Gap Between Risk Assessment Practice and Contemporary Risk Science Knowledge?

The relationship between theory and practice is thoroughly discussed in the scientific literature, including the field of risk. Research has revealed that a considerable gap exists between applied risk assessment and management and contemporary risk science knowledge. This paper examines the NORSOK Z-013 (2024), a recently updated standard primarily aimed at the Norwegian petroleum industry to meet the regulatory requirements for risk and emergency preparedness assessments. Since the previous version of the standard, a considerable shift has occurred in how the Norwegian petroleum authorities define and understand the risk concept, from a traditional probability-based perspective to a broader perspective highlighting uncertainty as a main component of risk. This conceptual change coincides with the uncertainty-based risk perspective described in the scientific literature. It is thus interesting to scrutinize and discuss new elements related to risk assessment in the revised NORSOK Z-013 standard compared to its previous version. The analysis aims to study how the new risk perspective is reflected in the changes and assess the alignment of the new version with fundamental risk science knowledge.

Keywords: NORSOK Z-013, Risk Science, Risk assessment, Theory-practice gap, Society for risk analysis, Uncertainty-based risk perspective.