Challenges in Inspection Planning for Maintenance of Static Mechanical Equipment on Ageing Oil and Gas Production Plants: The State of the Art

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Chandima Ratnayake
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Specific Pattern ◽  
Mechanical Equipment ◽  
Inspection Planning ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Design Life ◽  
Static Mechanical ◽  
Physical Assets

Although the design life of many of the oil and gas (O&G) production and process facilities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) has been exceeded, the same physical assets are still under exploitation as a result of extended life based on the information gathered by inspection, maintenance, modification and replacement history. Nevertheless, pressure systems, which comprised of static mechanical equipment such as piping components (valves, separators, tanks, vessels, spools, etc.), undergo continuous inherent deterioration (fatigue, corrosion, erosion, etc). Often the deterioration rates vary over the lifetime following no specific pattern due to the changes in product quality of the well stream, varying environmental conditions and unexpected cyclical loading. These necessitate effective inspection planning to repair, modify or replace those components that reach the end of their design life. This enables the integrity of the physical assets to be retained at a tolerable level. The inspection planning has traditionally been driven by prescriptive industry practices and carried out by human experts, based on risk-based inspection (RBI) and risk-based maintenance (RBM) philosophies. The RBI and RBM involve the planning of inspections on the basis of the information obtained from risk analyses of a particular system and related equipment. This manuscript reviews the evolution of inspection and maintenance practices. Then it provides a conceptual framework to mechanize the inspection planning process in order to reduce the effect arising from human involvement, whilst improving the effective utilization of data from different sources.

Onshore Petroleum Centre of Excellence—collaboration by industry partners, government and TAFE to deliver trained staff for an expanding onshore petroleum industry

2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 496
Author(s):  
Venner Bettina ◽  
Wood Chris ◽  
Welsh Kevin ◽  
Mossman Fiona ◽  
Goiak Paul ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gas Flow ◽  
Joint Venture ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Petroleum Industry ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Mechanical Equipment ◽  
Production Environment ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Training Facility ◽  
Set Up

Santos, Beach Energy and Senex Energy are collaborating with the SA Government and TAFE SA to set up a hub for onshore oil and gas training in Adelaide. The training facility provides a fully immersive simulated oil and gas production environment, as well as static equipment displays for demonstration and educational purposes. It is used for technical training, including safety, environmental and sustainable operational principles and key maintenance activities. The simulated production environment includes different pump types, gas compressors, a pig launcher and receiver, gas metering skid, field separator and small tanks, as well as associated pressure safety valves, flow valves and other instruments. Water is used to simulate oil and air is used to simulate gas flow. The static equipment display includes various valve types, flanges and a wellhead. Santos, as operator of the SA Cooper Basin joint venture (of which Beach Energy is a member), has committed significant oil and gas production and mechanical equipment, engineering design, transportation and installation of the training facility’s equipment. The SA Government, Senex Energy and Beach Energy have committed funding for fit-out, capital works and the running of the facility for the first two years. Industry partners GPA Engineering, Fyfe Engineering, Logicamms, Veolia Environmental Services, Toll Energy, Transfield Services, Ottoway Engineering, Bureau Veritas, MRC Group, Max Cranes, Whitham Media Australia, Inductabend, Toyota Australia, James Walker Australia, Coventry Fasteners, Centralian Controls and Central Diesel are providing expertise and services. The training facility officially opened on 16 February 2015

Effect of Joint Behavior on the Reassessment of Fixed Offshore Platforms in the Bay of Campeche, Mexico

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Partha Chakrabarti ◽  
Adinarayana Mukkamala ◽  
Ibrahim Abu-Odeh ◽  
Juan de Dios de la O. Rami´rez
Keyword(s):  
Fatigue Life ◽  
Service Life ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Strength Analysis ◽  
Offshore Platforms ◽  
Inspection Planning ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Joint Flexibility ◽  
Joint Behavior

Pemex Exploration y Produccio´n owns and operates several fields in the Bay of Campeche, located in the south Gulf of Mexico, for oil and gas production. Many of these fixed offshore platforms were built during the 70s and 80s and have already exceeded their design service life. To meet the growing demand for oil and natural gas it was found economic to extend the service life for these platforms by at least another 15 to 30 years. To meet this extended service life, thorough and systematic reassessment studies need to be conducted leading to identification of any structural weakness and possible locations of fatigue problems. To extend the fatigue life of the welded joints, inspections are required to be performed according to a risk based inspection planning procedure. As a part of the reassessment study non-linear pushover and spectral fatigue analyses are conducted. The effect of joint behavior, viz. the local joint flexibility and strength, on the structural ultimate capacity and fatigue life is discussed in this paper. In conventional analysis the tubular joints are assumed to be rigid and the flexibility effects due to shell deformations are ignored. In this present paper, the effect of the joint behavior is included in the analysis and its implications on the results are discussed. For the ultimate strength analysis both API and MSL formulations for the load-deformation behavior of the joint are studied and compared. For the fatigue analyses, local joint flexibility modeling using Buitrago’s formulation is used. Results including and excluding these effects are compared. Effect of grouting of the joint is also studied. Comprehensive results of the study for a number of platforms, which cover the categories of Drilling, Production, Gathering and Habitation, are presented. The effects of local joint flexibility and joint strength on structural behavior have been recognized to be important in the recent publications of the recommended practices and the codes such as the API RP 2A. However, comprehensive discussions and the results of application of these aspects are rare in the published literature. This paper addresses these issues and presents the results of a large number of platforms of different configurations, indicates some noticeable trends and suggests some general conclusions.

Utilization of Piping Inspection Data for Continuous Improvement: A Methodology to Visualize Coverage and Finding Rates

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Chandima Ratnayake
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Thickness Measurement ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Process Conditions ◽  
Inspection Planning ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Product And Process ◽  
Inspection Data ◽  
The Right

Piping inspection in Oil and Gas (O&G) production and process facilities (P&PFs) is traditionally set up by dividing the overall piping components into corrosion loops (CLs) reflecting similar corrosion (i.e. corrosion due to chemical or electro-chemical reaction and/or erosion-corrosion) environment and process conditions. Each CL is comprised of a few or several wall thickness measurement locations (WTMLs). The WTMLs are typically identified for each WTML ‘feature’ (e.g. straight section of a spool, bend, tee, weld, end cap, etc.) in a CL. Generally, inspection planning decisions regarding WTMLs are prioritized based on the results of risk based inspection (RBI) analysis. However, the degradation behavior is continuously changing due to the change in product and process conditions during the maturity of O&G production wells. This manuscript illustrates a methodology to visualize inspection coverage and corresponding defect finding rates (DFRs) for different WTML features in a selected sub-system of an oil and gas production and process facility. The suggested methodology aids the visualization of DFRs pertaining to different WTMLs, enabling inspection planners to assign inspection recommendations to the right location at the right time, minimizing ad hoc work. The approach also enables feedback to be provided to the plant inspection strategy (PIS), depending on the corresponding production field and P&PF, whilst reducing the cost of inspection to the asset owner by the minimization of ad hoc inspection recommendations.

Mechanization of static mechanical systems inspection planning process

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.M. Chandima Ratnayake
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Development ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Mechanical Equipment ◽  
Planning Problem ◽  
Inspection Planning ◽  
Suggested Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Static Mechanical

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the evolution of inspection and maintenance (I&M) practices used for aging and newly built oil and gas (O&G) facilities. It also proposes a framework and an approach for mechanizing inspection planning to perform preventive maintenance (PM) activities, taking technical condition (TC) and relative degradation (RD) into consideration. Design/methodology/approach – The paper systematically collects, categorizes, and analyzes the published literature of both researchers and practitioners. It also utilizes industrial experience that has been accrued and utilized from inspection planning practices for static mechanical equipment on aging O&G production plants. Findings – The paper defines significant issues in I&M of O&G assets related to: different philosophies; stakeholders’ requirements trade-off; dependability and asset deterioration challenges; items interacting with inspection planning mechanization processes and I&M optimization approaches. A framework is identified to mechanize the inspection planning process in order to reduce the effect arising from human involvement, while improving the effective utilization of data from different sources. The suggested approach improves the quality of an inspection program, while minimizing the variability and cost to the engineering contractors as well as to the owners of O&G facilities. Practical implications – The mechanization of inspection planning (MIP) is vital to have inspection programs with uniform quality. The currently employed inspection practices face challenges in maintaining uniform quality from one inspection program to another due to the variability present in the planning process, especially among the different inspection planning engineers. The suggested fuzzy logic-based MIP supports the minimization of the variability and increases the quality of inspection programs. Originality/value – The paper provides a comprehensive review of research contributions and industrial development efforts. These will be useful to the life cycle stakeholders in both academia and industry in understanding the inspection planning problem and solution space within the O&G asset I&M context.

Life Extension and Management of Ageing FPSOs

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilman Salleh
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Life Extension ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Design Life

FPSOs have been a popular choice for deep water oil and gas production with many installations worldwide. Many of these floating production systems were tanker conversions and they are now approaching their mid-life or end of life hence, facing ageing issues relating to asset integrity. Concurrently, there are also requirements for these floating production systems to operate to operate beyond the design life. As most of this maintenance and refurbishment work is to be done while on station, there needs to be a structured process to ensure that all key areas of concerns are reviewed. This paper outlines the strategy available and addresses the issues and possible solutions to manage the life extension and ageing of FPSOs.

Comprehensive Approach to Optimization of Macrooperations in Oil and Gas Production Based on Integrated Planning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Mikhailovich Ermolovich ◽  
Alexander Viktorovich Shamkov ◽  
Igor Viktorovich Seleznev ◽  
Nikolay Nikolayevich Yelin ◽  
Andrey Vladimirovich Duryagin
Keyword(s):  
High Intensity ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Business Plan ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Integrated Planning ◽  
Special Equipment ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Integrated Scheduling

Abstract The task of integrated planning, as one of the main tools to improve the operational efficiency of production activities of oil and gas production operators, is the most relevant. Due to the high intensity, today all operators emphasize the importance of automating the integrated planning process. An integrated plan means combining, ranking and possible combination, as well as timely updating the order of implementation of activities presented in separate functional plans, for which various services are responsible. At the same time, a functional plan is a group of activities united in its specificity. Examples of functional plans are well intervention (TR), well workover (KR), PP (routine maintenance), Research, OTM (organizational -technical measures), PPR (scheduled preventive work), VNS (commissioning of new wells). The goal of integrated planning is to execute the mining company's business plan in the most efficient way in terms of economic performance within the existing constraints. The constraints can be various aspects, such as the limited number of crews of the required specialization and special equipment for the activities, the need to move resources to the location of the activity taking into account the seasonality and types of transport, a strict sequence of operations within one activity, technological constraints associated with the inability to simultaneously conduct various activities at one cluster site, restrictions on the utilization of associated petroleum gas. Integrated planning distinguishes between planning horizons. As a rule, the horizon does not exceed one year and is designed to assess the feasibility of the company's business plan and justify capital and operating costs. Annual planning must take into account both targeted (named, assigned to a specific well or field site) and unaddressed (called "virtual") activities based on past year statistics. Monthly and 90-day plans are updated on a monthly basis and are more detailed and accurate than the annual plan, containing only targeted activities. Monthly planning clarifies the feasibility of the business plan in terms of production, budget and other criteria. In addition to the approved annual, monthly and 90-day plan, an operational (working) plan is formed, which is updated on a daily basis or upon request. As a rule, the operational plan is formed for a two-week planning horizon. The traditional integrated planning approach has its drawbacks and opportunities for improvement. The essence of the traditional approach of integrated planning is that different operational services, such as Geological Service, Well Intervention Service, Pipeline Maintenance Service, Chief Power Engineer, Chief Engineer, etc., annually and monthly submit a list of activities for inclusion in the annual, monthly (90-day) production program, after which the integrated planner combines all activities, combining them if possible, trying to achieve the targets as closely as possible, such as The main drawbacks of the traditional approach are the high intensity of forming an integrated plan, as well as its static nature. In fact, the approved integrated plan is actual no more than two days, as the life of oil and gas field is usually very dynamic - there are always unscheduled activities, there are always emergencies during crews, shifts in the start and end dates of already started crews, etc. All of the above aspects indicate that the integrated plan must be dynamic and must be constantly updated (Repin et al., 2018). The OIS UFAM integrated scheduling solution presented in this article provides extensive automation capabilities for the integrated scheduling process.

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