Prioritization of reputation loss factor subject to pipeline explosion from public perceptions

Abstract

The pipeline explosions events can cause many negative impacts such as human losses, property damage/ losses, economic losses, environmental damage and reputation loss to the pipeline‟s operator. Reputation is a major risk issue for all organizations and needs to be considered alongside all other major risks such as operational, strategic and financial risks. However, this reputation risk impact is always not included in the risk assessment of pipeline damage because the risk values were not obtained in monetary terms. The consequences of pipeline failure are also influenced by reputational loss. Hence, it must be included and taken into account in the consequences assessment of pipeline damage as well. This study focuses on prioritizing the importance of the reputation loss factors according to the public perceptions. Eight reputation loss factors were identified from 10 major latest pipeline explosion post-accident case studies from previous study. Over 200 respondents were distributed with the online questionnaire survey form to rate the importance level of reputation loss factors using Likert scale rating method. The significance difference was obtained by the implementation of statistical analysis. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method for prioritization process with the aid of Super Decisions software was used to rank the priority vectors. Results show that the factor P3 “Destroyed private properties” as the highest contributor to an operator‟s reputation loss due to a pipeline accident. Hence, by all the prioritization, the pipeline owner can apply the mitigation measures immediately according the factor that formerly to be dealt with.