Riser Robotic Inspection - Reducing Safety Risk While Improving Efficiency and Effectiveness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nere’ Joseph Mabile ◽  
Alessandro Vagata

Abstract Integrity management is an ongoing lifecycle process for ensuring safe operation and fitness for service of offshore oil and gas production systems, including risers. Risers offer a means of transporting fluids between subsea wells and the host platform crossing the splash zone that is probably the most critical region for corrosion and exposure to external damages. Furthermore, with their proximity to the personnel on the platform and to the topside equipment, risers are considered safety critical, and are therefore, subject to planned inspections followed by an engineering assessment of the findings. This paper discusses the motivation and business driver for developing and implementing a new and cost effective risers’ inspection methodology in the splash zone based on innovative robotic platforms. The technical features and the capabilities of the robot are outlined. Traditionally, risers’ inspections are carried out by rope access technicians and divers or ROV below the water line using conventional technologies as spot ultrasonic thickness measurements, traditional radiography and visual assessment. This type of inspection is based on a first visual assessment followed by NDE testing only if some finding is spotted. Internal defects or defect under coating, e.g. splashtron, can be easily overlooked, compromising the entire assessment process. Additionally such activities are often limited by accessibility, weather, and Personnel On-Board (POB) accommodations, but primarily they involve risks to inspector's safety. Backbone of the presented methodology is the use of a robotic crawler that has the key advantage to inspect autonomously the risers, navigating over obstacles like clamps and supports. The robot can carry a variety of payloads for visual inspections, surface profiling, and NDE examinations with the ability to scan large surfaces with or without coating and detect internal and external defects. It can operate in the topside, splash zone and subsea sections of the riser. The inspection data are processed in real time for an immediate assessment of the integrity of the asset. Examples are presented and comparison is made between traditional inspection methodologies and robotic autonomous methodologies to demonstrate the improvement of inspection effectiveness and efficiency. The paper also discusses the potential areas of future development, which include Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to further automatize the process and methodologies of risers’ inspection and data analysis.

Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1849 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Velloso Alves de Souza ◽  
Francisca Rosário ◽  
João Cajaiba

Calcium carbonate scale is formed during oil and gas production. Tube-blocking tests (TBTs) are used to define the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in order to prevent scale adhesion in the petroleum production system equipment. However, non-adhered crystals may favor heterogeneous nucleation to other deposits such as calcium naphthenates, causing a more severe scale problem, increasing production losses and treatment costs. The objective of the present work was to develop a new dynamic test methodology to determine the MIC for CaCO3 using a sintered metal filter. Organophosphorus inhibitors were selected for comparison with the conventional dynamic tube-blocking system. The results demonstrated that the use of the filter allowed an MIC of the inhibitors to be obtained considering the precipitation prevention. The inhibitor concentration in the conventional tube-blocking system does not prevent precipitation, acting only on adhesion and crystal growth on the capillary wall. Tests to evaluate the potential of calcium naphthenates formation in a naphthenate flow rig dynamic system demonstrated the influence of heterogeneous nucleation from non-adhered carbonate crystals, potentially aggravating deposition problems in oil and gas production systems.


Author(s):  
Junho Choi ◽  
Joseph Moo-Hyun Kim

Ocean environmental conditions, such as waves, winds, and currents, are getting harsher due to climate change. This means that oil and gas production platforms in the ocean may experience unexpectedly large environmental loads bigger than previous design loads. Also, many platforms are reaching the end of their design lives. Ensuring riser integrity is one of the most important issues for platform safety and service-life extension. Currently, monitoring sensors are deployed on risers, and structural evaluation methods are utilized to examine riser integrity. However, there are some limitations to the structural evaluation methods. Furthermore, platform operators continue to seek for more direct and cost-effective riser monitoring method due to the low price of oil. In this study, the MultiSensor Fusion (MSF) system is proposed to surmount technical and economic obstacles in real-time riser-monitoring technology. The MSF system is validated for TLP (tension-leg platform) risers by using numerical sensors and numerical-simulation tools.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meziane Akchiche ◽  
Jean-Louis Beauquin ◽  
Sabine Sochard ◽  
Sylvain Serra ◽  
Jean-Michel Reneaume ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 479-481 ◽  
pp. 1129-1132
Author(s):  
Wang Ming Bo

This paper gives an overview of erosion mechanisms in elbows in oil and gas production systems. The nature of the erosion process itself makes it very difficult to develop some definitive methods or models to prevent or predict the erosion in elbows in all conditions. This paper provides a review of the subject which will help petroleum engineers to handle the erosion problems in oil and gas industry. This review is given of different erosion mechanisms connected with sand erosion and the factors that influence them, and then the review goes on to look at particulate erosion in elbows in more details. Conclusions are then drawn based on the above analyses.


Author(s):  
Michelangelo Fabbrizzi ◽  
Paolo Di Sisto ◽  
Roberto Merlo

Subsea oil and gas production systems can be subject to Hydrogen Induced Stress Cracking (“HISC”) depending on the material, cathodic protection and other factors. A failure in this kind of systems can lead to safety issues as well as environmental hazards and high repair costs. The analysis of recent failures has led to the recognition of HISC as a very important issue related to local stress and strain. This has necessitated the extensive use of Finite Elements Methods for the analysis of all system components. Since HISC is a recent issue, there are very few cases of such assessments reported in the literature. This paper is based on the assessment of the susceptibility of subsea piping manifolds of Duplex stainless steel to Hydrogen Induced Stress Cracking, which was conducted during the Skarv project by General Electric Oil & Gas. A variety of cases consisting of different loads and configurations were considered to give a broad assessment using a recently developed code (DNV-RP-F112-October2008). This work has led to the development of a set of procedures and models for the assessment of the entire system which is described in the current paper. The proposed methodology is useful for both design purposes and also for the verification of parts, which, if found to be non-compliant, would require redesign. In general, parts that were determined to be non-compliant using a linear assessment were found to be compliant through non-linear analysis, in fact 3D plastic analysis leads to a redistribution of stress and strain and hence, to lower values. “Cold creep” was not considered since the levels of stress and strain were considered to be low enough to avoid this phenomenon. As a consequence of this experience, a new methodology was developed, which is able to speed up the analysis process and to predict local stresses from only pipe elements. The latter permits the use of a linear assessment for bends, T junctions and weldolet even with misalignment and erosion, avoiding the need to perform 3D analysis. The second part of the paper describes this method.


Author(s):  
Per Egil Kvaale ◽  
Tore Ha˚brekke ◽  
Gisle Ro̸rvik

Use of stainless steels in subsea oil and gas production systems have been common through the development of remote controlled subsea oil and gas production systems. Stainless steels are mainly selected to minimize the corrosion due to unprocessed oil and gas and thereby simplifying the internal corrosion protection challenges. Different materials and principles have been implemented from cladding of Carbon Manganese steels to the use of solid stainless steels. For cladding Incoloy 825 or Inconel 625 is common, while the solid stainless steels have been duplex, superduplex or 13%Cr steels in pipes and pipe fittings. Experience from service has shown that these materials have limits in their use, and it is reported various cases where the stainless steels have failed. The present paper will deal with a few examples of failures and possible reasons for these failures.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document