12 minute read
ASSET INTEGRITY
Will the coronavirus pandemic have a lasting impact on the way we work?
In the 12-month period from January to December 2019 the Office for National Statistics reports that an estimated 1.7million people worked mainly from home, a mere 5% of the workforce. Another 1% of the total workforce reported working in the same grounds or building as their home. Fast forward to the middle of May 2020 and, as we continue to adhere to government guidelines, and stay at home to stay safe and to protect the NHS, the world of work has changed beyond all recognition.
We have all been asked, where possible, to work from home and, where remote working isn’t an option, non-essential businesses have closed. As I write this PIM has transitioned from having our onshore teams either in our or our clients’ offices to working from home.
Thanks to the available technology and a great IT team, PIM’s transition has been smooth and we are able to connect virtually and maintain the office environment while delivering our services to our clients. The team as a whole is responding well to working remotely while adapting to this new norm which also sees our schools closed.
Once we come out the other side of the coronavirus pandemic it will be extremely interesting to see what long-lasting effects this experience has on the world of work. Surely such a shift in our daily lives cannot pass without leaving its mark?
Kirsty Ross, PIM’s HR Manager
While the percentage of the workforce which can effectively work from home differs according to industry sector with some industries and types of work within each sector lending themselves to home working more easily, it has been clearly demonstrated that with the right technology and infrastructure in place home working is possible on a greater scale than previously thought. It follows that companies which have previously been reluctant to embrace remote and/or flexible working are likely to find that this approach will be challenged by employees wishing to continue this way of working.
At PIM, we have always focused on having the right person in the right post and have been open to employees having different working solutions from the ‘norm’. As a company, we have found this to be a very successful approach. It has meant that we have been able to access talent which would have been unavailable to us if we had insisted on the traditional office-based, nine to five scenario. This makes the company richer as a whole and opens up a broader talent pool when it comes to recruitment.
It may be hard to see at the moment, but I think there will be positives that come out of this strangest of situations and, hopefully, in the world of work a more open attitude to flexibility and home working will be one of them.
By Graeme Forbes
Challenging energy landscape forges route to greater production efficiency
The UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) is better-placed to “weather the storm” caused by the twin threat of Covid-19 and falling commodity prices than it has been during previous downturns, according to a leading industry task group.
The new spirit of collaboration borne out of the 2014 oil price-crash has created the conditions where operators have come together to exchange knowledge, share examples of best practice, and discuss challenges faced; all geared towards ensuring a sustainable future for the North Sea.
Established in 2017, the Asset Integrity Task Group – a subgroup of the MER UK Asset Stewardship Task Force – began with the aim of driving improvements in asset integrity across all UKCS facilities, through reducing hydrocarbon losses and, thereby, extending the life of the entire basin.
The task group, which meets quarterly, examines how MER activity impacts on efficiency, and provides a platform for meaningful cross-industry collaboration; bringing together industry experts and specialists from operators, contracting companies, and other major stakeholders; including, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), the Oil & Gas Technology Centre, Oil & Gas UK (OGUK), the Energy Institute, and Step Change in Safety.
As part of its annual ‘Tier Zero’ meeting for industry leaders, the OGA announced that production efficiency on the UKCS had improved for the seventh consecutive year, reaching 80% in 2019. The latest analysis showed a five-percentage point increase on the previous year, driven by a 34% reduction in production losses compared with 2018, which represented 50million barrels of oil equivalent (boe). Scott Robertson, Director of Operations at the Oil and Gas Authority and Co-Chair of the MER UK Asset Stewardship Task Force, said: “At 80%, production efficiency in the UKCS has risen by 15 percentage points compared to 2014. Achieving this target means that the basin is in a much-improved position to weather the current storm and, as a result, better prepared to adapt to whatever comes next.
“This target was achieved along with our community of integrity managers, especially those within the Asset Integrity Task Group. Fantastic progress has been made since it was first introduced, with the number of parties willing to join, share success stories, and find problems to common challenges faced continually rising.
“This further reduction in production losses over the past 12 months is a significant achievement. While production efficiency has gradually increased since 2013, it remains a continuous journey and we are not resting on our laurels.”
In 2019, the Asset Integrity Task Group developed and published a roadmap which aims to reduce loss of containment (LOC) events, planned integrity losses by 20%, and unplanned integrity losses by 60% in the UKCS.
The group has subsequently identified various areas of improvement and highlighted progress made over the past three years towards achieving these goals, with visible results recorded across a number of different aspects – including production increases within the past year.
Further, a reduction in plant losses in the UKCS may be attributed to the improvements made as a result of the task group’s roadmap.
Adam Sheikh, VP Business Projects at Repsol Sinopec, who has led the Asset Integrity Task Group since its inception, commented: “Significant progress has been made across all the areas identified on the roadmap for improvement in 2019, such as testing alternative insulation material, retro-fitting inspection sensors, and the development of analytical software to name a few.
“In addition, the task group has written joint industry papers on UKCS best practice for topics such as ‘risk-based inspection’ and ‘performing maintenance on live pressure equipment’. We have then followed up on how operators use the outputs of best practice papers.
“The cross-industry collaborative approach has made these visible results across key areas of asset integrity possible.”
Over the next three months, the task group is planning a change of leadership. Adam Sheikh will hand-over to Shell’s Paul Jackson and Matthew Blackburn from the Health and Safety Executive. Under the direction of the new leadership, the task group will continue to identify areas for improvements, cross-collaboration, and best practice for the UKCS industry.
Scott Robertson added: “The impact of Covid-19 and the industry’s ability to effectively man offshore is a concern and one that needs to be carefully managed to ensure safety remains the highest priority, whilst efforts to keep on top of safety-critical maintenance must continue with a laser-like focus.
Scott Robertson,
Director of Operations at OGA
“The wider MER cultural changes have created the right framework to allow the asset integrity group to perform an effective role. It is encouraging to see industry leaders and operators, among others, coming together and prepared to share key learnings and experiences.
“Further adoption of new technologies – as set out in the road map, will, in turn, allow for increased efficiencies in the UKCS and have undoubtedly had a positive contribution on overall integrity losses to date.”
Digital twinning delivers trust and value in reducing operating costs
The oil and gas industry is currently enduring one of the most challenging periods in its history. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly accelerated an existing decline in global demand for hydrocarbons, resulting in the lowest oil prices for 30 years. This has left the industry facing the dual challenge of ensuring successful and safe working conditions and practices for employees while maintaining the economic viability of assets.
How can you maintain, or even raise, safety standards and address maintenance challenges while reducing cost?
One solution is the growing adoption and recognition of the benefits of digital twinning i.e. the creation of a mirror image of an asset to support integrity management. At the forefront of this cultural change is Bureau Veritas, a world leader in testing, inspection and certification services, which has created a proven and ‘boxed’ digital twinning and smart data management system that is already helping to generate significant reductions in unit operating costs and capital expenditure.
The company’s Veristar AIM3D system, developed in partnership with Dassault Systèmes, has revolutionised asset management, providing a true, as is, four-dimensional picture of an asset’s condition instantly, everywhere on any platform or device, at any time.
Veristar AIM3D combines a digital twin of any marine or offshore asset with smart data. It improves visibility and understanding of the asset, allowing operators to make the right 2/5 choices faster to improve efficiency, safety, integrity, performance, return on investment and carbon footprint reduction. The digital twin, linked to a comprehensive asset integrity management database and collaborative platform that will interface with any system the asset owner has - and is specifically designed not to replace existing infrastructure, can be accessed by all personnel. The model, which provides a 360º view, is constantly updated throughout the asset’s life. Any changes made within the systems it interfaces with, is immediately reflected in the VAIM3D twin. Through its integral Project Management module capability it allows shutdowns and turnarounds to be optimised, significantly reducing planning time, and it allows the preparation of maintenance and modification workpacks, to be done remotely. It assists in the execution of and preparation of maintenance and inspection reports and the results are automatically visualised in the twin to reflect the asset’s real condition. Furthermore, it helps operators anticipate issues, easing the move toward predictive asset management, bringing with it reductions in operational costs, inspections, maintenance and repairs. Bureau Veritas with one of their clients has estimated digital twining is reducing hull maintenance costs (OPEX) by 25% over five years. Benefits for the supply chain include: the provision of a mirror image of an asset which everyone can view and estimate against the ‘as it is’ information; mitigation of inconsistency across tenders; the elimination of additional cost due to access and egress issues on site; a compilation of accurate engineering work packs with minimal 3/5 requirement for site visits; more fixed-price certainty, and time and opportunities to evaluate alternative scenarios, approaches and technologies.
With the benefits of a digital twin system well established in cutting maintenance costs, maintaining safety and performance and extending asset life, Bureau Veritas then considered its benefits for the decommissioning sector.
It was assessed that the value from digital twinning would be realised across a range of spheres including environmental, societal, wells, the asset and regulatory requirements. Digital twinning was identified as a method of improving the definition of work scope, the quality of proposals and execution efficiency while lowering estimated and actual costs.
From a safety perspective, digital twinning enables virtual simulation to run hazardous activity without: a physical presence and thereby eliminate or mitigate risks; familiarisation with an asset prior to the mobilisation of personnel; the laydown and storage of plant and equipment offshore; links into Permit to Work (PTW) systems and the simulation of access and egress from hazardous operations for personnel. In the UK, a run-down of the safety case through visualisation could reduce the requirement for the Health and Safety Executive to make on-site visits.
By providing a visualisation of risks through simulation and respective mitigation, digital twinning can provide insurers and underwriters with a better understanding of the risks and control measures being taken. Indeed, insurers have suggested such increased visibility could remove a zero from the cost of premiums.
Bureau Veritas discovered that by using its digital twin and smart data system, operators could save between 9% and 15% on total decommissioning project costs. Data from the company, which was shared with the UK industry regulator the Oil and Gas Authority, showed operators could save in excess of £2 million on project costs for assets with topsides of 10,000 tonnes, increasing to more than £8.5 million for assets with topsides up to 40,000 tonnes. Furthermore, following several months of data gathering and refining, it was identified that savings from 9% to more than 30% could be made from a range of individual decommissioning activities including topsides and jacket removal, subsea infrastructure, facilities de-energising, operator costs, onshore recycling and site remediation and monitoring. Bureau Veritas has identified a total of 54 North Sea assets with topsides of 10,000 - 40,000 tonnes that would benefit from using a digital twinning system to gain direct savings in decommissioning. It has also identified 35 assets of fewer than 10,000 tonnes 4/5 that would benefit from the use of a digital twin in late-life operations through to decommissioning phases.
With decommissioning a hard cost on a balance sheet, the need for efficiencies and cost reduction is clear, as outlined in the Oil and Gas Authority’s Decommissioning Strategy. The results from Bureau Veritas indicate digital twinning could save millions of pounds in overall project costs and enable operators to make smarter, more cost-effective choices.
