SPEAKING OUT...Maintaining Asset Integrity

摘要

Maintaining asset integrity is a challenge the oil and gas industry takes very seriously.Ensuring the safety,reliability and efficiency of equipment is not only essential to manage major potential incidents,but is also vital in Maximising Economic Recovery(MER)and creating a physical environment people can be proud to work in.Matt Lewin,Technical Director at Marine Technical Limits(MTL)explains how seamless asset integrity programmes are creating a sea-change for certainty.In response to the final recommendations of Sir Ian Wood's review into MER in 2014,three main themes were identified for further investigation.Among these sits asset integrity and the development of technology and its implementation to efficiently extract the billions of barrels of oil which remain to be recovered from the depths of the UK Continental Shelf(UKCS).Advanced technologies company,Lockheed Martin,was commissioned to conduct a technology landscaping study addressing the asset integrity theme and providing recommendations for the MER agenda.It's thought work towards this asset integrity project,which is targeting advances in process vessel inspection and managing corrosion under insulation,could unlock ￡1 billion of revenue in the North Sea through improved production efficiency and cost savings.Included in these assets critical to maintain are Floating Production Storage and Offloading(FPSO)units which have played a key role in remote offshore areas for many years.As the industry continues to venture into far flung locations and ever deeper water depths to satisfy the world's energy demands,these vessels have become even more important.An FPSO system is now one of the most commercially viable concepts for remote or deep-water oilfield developments.