Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) Training
“Low risk” and “acceptable risk” aren’t the same thing, and regulators, insurers, and boards increasingly want a number, not an opinion, to tell the two apart. Quantitative Risk Assessment gives oil and gas facilities that number — a defensible, data-driven estimate of the probability and consequence of major accident hazards. Burraq Consulting’s QRA course trains engineers to build and interpret that analysis rather than just accept a QRA report handed down from a consultant.
What Is Quantitative Risk Assessment?
QRA is a numerical approach to estimating the probability and consequence of major accident hazards — fires, explosions, and toxic releases — at a process facility. It underpins safety case development, informs facility layout and siting decisions, and demonstrates that risk has been reduced to a level that is “as low as reasonably practicable” (ALARP). Where HAZOP identifies what could go wrong and why, QRA quantifies how likely it is and how bad it could be.
Who Should Attend
- Risk engineers and process safety engineers conducting or reviewing QRA studies
- Loss prevention specialists supporting insurance and risk financing decisions
- Engineers contributing to safety case development for new or existing facilities
- HSE professionals who need to interpret QRA findings for management or regulators
Prerequisites
An engineering degree is expected, along with familiarity with hazard identification techniques such as HAZOP or HAZID, since QRA builds directly on their outputs.
What the Course Covers
- QRA methodology and how it fits within a facility's overall safety case
- Frequency analysis techniques, including event trees, fault trees, and the use of historical failure data
- Consequence modeling fundamentals — dispersion modeling, fire and explosion effects, and their basis in physical models
- Individual and societal risk criteria, and how they're used to demonstrate ALARP
- Risk presentation formats, including F-N curves and individual risk contour plots used in regulatory submissions
- Software and tools commonly used in industry QRA studies, and how to sanity-check their outputs
- A worked case study, walking through a QRA for a representative process unit from hazard identification to risk presentation
Course at a Glance
Why Train with Burraq Consulting
QRA numbers are only as good as the assumptions behind them, and Burraq’s instructors bring direct experience developing and reviewing safety cases for GCC facilities — including the judgment calls that don’t show up in a textbook formula, like which failure data sets are actually representative of local operating conditions. Participants leave able to question a QRA report critically, not just read the summary.
Certification and Next Steps
This course builds practical QRA competency that supports safety case development and risk-informed decision-making. It’s a strong complement to Burraq’s HAZOP Facilitation and Bow-Tie Risk Analysis courses, and a natural next step toward broader risk-based inspection and integrity management work.
Frequently Asked Questions
HAZOP is a qualitative technique that identifies process deviations, their causes, and safeguards. QRA takes hazard scenarios — often informed by HAZOP — and quantifies their probability and consequence numerically to support risk-based decisions.
Not necessarily. Most industry QRA work uses established software tools rather than custom coding, though comfort with probability concepts and engineering judgment about failure data is essential.
Several commercial packages are used across the industry for consequence modeling and risk calculation; this course focuses on the underlying methodology so participants can work confidently with whichever tool their organization uses.
Requirements vary by jurisdiction and facility risk profile. Many high-hazard facilities are required or strongly expected to maintain a QRA-based safety case, while smaller or lower-risk operations may rely on qualitative risk assessment instead.
Turn risk into a number you can defend.
or contact us to discuss a tailored QRA training program for your team.