INTEGRITY is a huge issue for the North Sea as the province slips ever deeper into maturity and operators strive to squeeze more oil& gas from their assets.
A growing number of production platforms are being pushed beyond their original intended design lives by 10, 15 or even more years.
To achieve this, production infrastructure must be kept in efficient working order – in other words, maintained properly to ensure mechanical and structural integrity.
“Looking after assets as they get older is a necessity and obligation,” warns Nigel Robinson, VP integrity management services at GL Noble Denton.
“To be competitive you have to keep on top of it.”
GL Noble Denton is, in essence, a new entity built on a lot of well known names and, according to Robinson, is set up do exactly what the oil&gas-related market is asking for, which is to be smarter, safer, greener.
And integrity management is right at the heart of that.
Integrity has long been a part of Robinson’s life. He and his team are acutely aware of just how complex a challenge this is to the owners of platforms and related production infrastructure.
It requires careful and specialist management. The older that infrastructure becomes, the greater the need to ensure that it remains fit for purpose – compliant, not least in the context of safety.
“Five years ago, I was part of a company that’s quite different in terms of the size of operation to where we are now,” says Robinson.
“In those days, the company I was with was a 200-person entity; now we’re 3,500 within a division, operating in over 65 countries across the world.
“This rapid change has occurred through a series of mergers and acquisitions to create GL Noble Denton.
“Back then, I was involved with floating systems integrity and had colleagues who were dealing with fixed structures. Today, we are joined with other units who specialise in production systems, pressure vessels, pipelines and subsea equipment.
“As a result, GL Noble Denton can offer a fully integrated integrity service to the market. We run from the wellhead right through to the point of hydrocarbons delivery ashore. In other words, every step along that path.
“What’s happening out there in the industry is this massive, growing focus on the integrity of infrastructure of every kind. This plays to our strengths, and the intention is to provide a higher-level total integrity process that links all the expertise we have within the company together.
“The whole thing about integrity management is that you need to implement a management process as well as the engineering to ensure that you have a good grip of the issues and factors that will affect the safety of your unit.
“I’m not sure that anyone else can cover the breadth that GL Noble Denton can now offer the market.”
Integrity management is an evolving science and it has not received the same attention in the past as it does today.
It did not used to be a part of the design process for a new field development.
Yet there would be advantages to doing this, in Robinson’s opinion, and that dialogue has started.
“That’s certainly the way the conversations are going, so as to get integrity written into the design process,” he says.
“That way, it becomes something that can be managed throughout the life of the asset. That’s the ideal situation.
“The best point to get the basic data from which to construct the initial integrity model is during the design phase.
“But the reality is that there are quite a few assets where we have been brought into the frame at the midpoint in their lives. This is a challenge, but not an impossible one.”
The most immediate challenge for the North Sea is how to eke out the lives of the growing number of elderly platforms, many of which have been sold on by their original builders to tier-two operators hungry to squeeze the fields they service and to bring in satellite opportunities.
“You can be in the situation where you have a big piece of plant that was designed to produce 400,000-500,000 barrels of oil but which, today, is producing only, say, 40,000bpd, plus a lot of water.
“We understand how best to keep the asset fit for purpose as it ages.
“At GL Noble Denton, we’re striving for an even closer understanding of the total process … where production is now and where it’s going to be in the future,” adds Robinson.
“For us, the North Sea is a developing market.
“We have integrity management services covering a number of assets. We carry out safety analysis, reliability and condition-based monitoring, and we carry out process enhancement work.
“We do a lot, but we want to do a lot more. At the moment, we have centres in Loughborough and Slough, and a centre of excellence in Aberdeen.
“We’re keen to hear from people who might be interested in working with us, and we’re talking about adding 25-50 to the team.
“We see ourselves as the fresh future for integrity.”
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