Sea transport of natural gas in the form of hydrate pellets is a new technological
approach. Introducing new technologies bears raises the possibility of introducing unknown
risks or—in case of alternatives for already existing technical solutions—higher risk, either
human-, environmental-, or property-related. The option of gas transport by natural gas
hydrate pellets has been introduced within the Korean joint research project. One key task
was the safety evaluation of the novel natural gas hydrate carrier (NGH carrier) developed
in the project. The aim of this work was to support and assess the risk aspects of the
development to ensure that the risk level for the newly developed concept is as low as for
existing competing concepts, especially LNG carriers. The NGH carrier is based on the
concept of the self-preservation effect and thereby preserves NGH in the form of pellets at
atmospheric pressure and temperatures lower than −20 °C. In order to identify all the
possible hazards in the system and then enhance the system safety, a Hazard Identification
(HAZID) study was conducted. As a result of the HAZID, 80 identified hazards in total were
explored and ranked in terms of risk index for the semi-quantitative risk evaluation. Among
the hazards identified, three hazards were found to have unacceptable risk level and twenty
eight to have acceptable but ALARP risk level. Regarding the hazards with unacceptable
risk or ALARP risk, additional safety actions and recommendations for risk control were
discussed and proposed in a SAFETY ACTION REGISTER, which would be considered
and utilized by designers when developing the detailed system design in the future