Risk Based ‘Optimum’ Inspection for FPSO Hulls

摘要

The increase in deepwater exploration activity hasrngenerated increased use of the Floating Production/StoragernOffloading Systems (FPSO￠s). Converting existing tankersrnis, in many cases, more economically feasible and fasterrnthan building new FPSO￠s for the same purpose. Forrnconversion of tankers to FPSO￠s, inspection andrnsubsequent fitness for purpose assessment are cruciallyrnimportant.rnThe objective of this paper is to present the principles andrnstrategies of in-service inspection programs for FPSO￠s.rnThe paper summarizes the technical basis for three levelsrnof inspection strategies: 1) probability-based inspectionrnmethod, 2) risk-based inspection method, and 3)rn‘optimum’ inspection method.