Explosion proof LED lighting as an alternative to conventional lighting for offshore oil and gas facilities

For decades, the oil and gas industry has been relying on conventional lightings such as fluorescent and gas discharge lightings, which inherently comes with a set of challenges such as high replacement cost, more so for offshore oil and gas facilities. The maturing technology of explosion proof LED (ExLED) lightings in the recent years has provided an opportunity for the industry to take a fresh perspective in lighting design. The plummeting oil price has also forced operating companies to devise innovative ways to keep the capital and operating expenditure as low as reasonably possible without jeopardising safety. This paper explains the advantages of using ExLED lightings in hazardous areas and presents the significant total cost of ownership savings that can be achieved through a life cycle cost analysis performed for explosion proof LED and conventional lightings, for a period of ten (10) years for a particular platform module. Findings in this paper are presented from an end-user perspective in the offshore oil and gas industry and detailed development of the LED lighting technology itself is not a scope of this paper.