attempt has been made to capture the new trends in the regulations, to the extent they are known. There have over the last 10-15 years been published a few textbooks on risk assessment, most of them are devoted to relatively generic topics. Some are also focused on the risk management aspects, in general and with offshore applicability. None are known to address the needs and topics of the use of QRA studies by the offshore industry in particular. The present work is trying to bridge this gap. The use of QRA studies is somewhat special in Northern Europe, and par- cularly in Norway. The use of these techniques is dominated by offshore appli- tions, with the main emphasis on quantification of risk to personnel. Furthermore, the risk to personnel is virtually never concerned with exposure of the public to hazards. Thus, the studies are rarely challenged from a methodology point of view. Most people will probably see this as an advantage, but it also has some dr- backs. Such challenges may namely also lead to improvements in the metho- logy. It may not be quite coincidental that the interest in modelling improvement and development sometimes has been rather low between the risk analysts working with North Sea applications.

Jan Erik Vinnem is Professor II of Risk Analysis at University of Stavanger, Norway. He is also a specialist advisor and CEO of Preventor AS, a consultancy to the Norwegian offshore industry. His professional career includes experience in the petroleum industry (Statoil and Total), and work as a private consultant (as the founder of Safetec Nordic AS and Preventor AS), in addition to his time in research and education. His research interests include decision support tools, risk management, risk acceptance, risk analysis methods, and risk assessments reflecting human and organizational factors.