The FPSO market: Available assistance from ABS
REGIONAL FOCUS:
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noted in Part 1, within the next decade, as many as 50 FPSOs could be operating in the Gulf of Mexico. ABS,
with its 50 years’ experience in the marine industry, has evolved from its solely-vessel-classification
role to more involvement in design / construction / maintenance technology. Introduced in this two-part
presentation are several guidance documents / services offered, or recommended, by ABS that can assist
companies planning on entering this growing market in the U.S. Gulf, and elsewhere.  |
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Human Factors Assessments
Because more than 80% of accidents involve human errors or organizational factors, it is logical that class societies – and their affiliated companies – confront the human factors in working on safety issues, as an important area for the future. Offshore emphasis on "human factors" stems from a realization that many incidents could be avoided if greater thought is given to the human element within the safety equation.
As industry ventures into deepwater offshore operations, facilities are becoming larger, more complex and require a much larger staff to operate / maintain systems and equipment, resulting in more attention being paid to these issues. Technology is advancing quickly in the area, and continual improvement is expected.
Areas which knowledgeable experts can address include design information on walkways, ladders, stairs and handrails. Information on how to design documents to be read by field personnel is also important. Visual displays and controls / labeling have their own subsets of expertise, and cultural issues also come to bear.
Much of the focus is on research, but several platforms in particular in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) have had some pilot attempts to incorporate much human-element learning into their designs. Two recent incidents of an accidental disconnection of the lower marine riser package during operations have focused some attention on the human-factor issue.
Priorities for addressing the human element include:
- Management participation
- Workplace design
- Environmental control
- Personnel selection
- Training
- Procedures
- Interpersonal interaction, and
- Job aids.
3-D visualization is a key component to the future of design for ergonomic issues, and much can be accomplished / improved with use of simulation technologies for human factors engineering and other aspects of asset integrity management. ABS is taking steps to enable clients to reap the benefits of this technology as it develops.
3-D Visualization
Simulation technologies and 3-D visualization are future conduits of design and risk analysis for offshore projects. Simulation technologies provide the ability to develop / implement systems without requiring systems hardware.
Simulation technologies may allow concurrent design / classification and even "virtual surveying" of the prototype installation, where surveyors can "walk through" a virtual model of an engine room while it is being designed and check out items such as valve operability, the maintenance access room, etc.
Modeling also facilitates the availability of critical information on components embedded in the product model such that "point and click" technology can dial up a pump manufacturer’s home page on the Web and supply performance curves, maintenance procedures and spare parts lists.
Additional goals include streamlining both classification and the role of regulatory approval in the design process, and assisting clients in developing an optimal design. The simulation-based design process provides the ability to design, build and operate a vessel in an artificial environment, and develop / test a prototype within a computer. The technology enables one to look at the entire life-cycle and perform "what-if" scenario analyses before construction begins.
Working in a collaborative environment, one can be led through the maze of rules and regulations, reducing the level of design rework and producing a better design in a shorter time. Probably the most important aspect of the design evolution has been advent of tools, such as CadCam, which allow shipyards to fabricate vessels such that all maintenance requirements are incorporated into the parameters when the design is set.
This approach results in a product that is less conservative and cheaper to build, without compromising existing safety standards. Another benefit of simulation-based design is the designer’s ability to view the product from all aspects, inside and out. Designers also may "ride" the structure as it is subjected to various loading conditions.
This capability is important to human factor issues because the client, using a "walk-through" mechanism, can see ergonomic aspects of the design – e.g., pick up valves that are too high for an average crew member to reach, see possible hazards during future operations, and determine if sufficient space is available for adequate maintenance.
Benefits of implementing 3-D visualization in engineer approval include:
- Structural / system configurations or arrangements are viewed to better comprehend overall nature / behavior of the configuration, thereby accelerating the review process, e.g., a designer or the shipyard in verifying clearances / tolerances, fit-up or checking for structural / system fouling.
- Ability to identify problem areas sooner in the review process, rather than at a more advanced stage.
- Improved collaboration and integration of designs (piping and structure); ability to assess data quality without expensive mockups.
- Facilitate design data verification (a virtual survey) or verification of an analysis at plan-approval stage.
Further, the technique allows effective integration of all isolated analysis programs used for plan approval using new graphic-user interface with a common navigator, accessible from a central server. This capability has the potential to achieve the following:
- Easier software version control and maintenance
- Easier exchange / sharing of data between different applications
- No need for engineers to know pre-requirements of applications
- All process instruction check sheets available from the same navigator
- Ability to see output graphically through a simulation-based design (SBD) visualizing program, and
- Customized reporting, with approval letters automated / stored in a central repository for universal access.
As shipyards / fabricators acquire this technology, the industry will experience increased competitive pressure for optimization because these yards will have the capability to rapidly run many more prototype designs.
Maintaining Integrity By Construction
Probably the best way of maintaining the integrity of an ongoing FPSO is to have the vessel built under the classification survey system. Class surveyors verify that approved plans are followed, good workmanship practices are applied and rules are adhered to in all respects. During construction of a vessel built to ABS Class, surveyors witness onsite tests of materials for hull and certain items of machinery as required by the rules. ABS also surveys building / installation / testing of the structure and principal mechanical / electrical systems.
Survey vs. inspection. Surveys are the method through which ABS "Bureau" confirms Class. The role is somewhat different than that of Inspection and Owner’s Representative, a service that is offered through ABS-affiliated companies.
Often the best product of construction results when the owner’s anticipated operating personnel / team are significantly and intimately connected with the construction phase. This approach enhances the ability of the team to construct a vessel which is well-positioned for future integrity maintenance. Construction teams, separated by construction budgets, often may take decisions based on minimizing capital expenditure, and not maximizing efforts to avoid operating expenditures in the future.
Vendor coordination. Worldwide global resources are vital to putting the project together. The quality of vendor equipment used on the vessel also is critical for the vessel to achieve a specified design life. The global nature of the offshore industry has led to geographic disbursement of the various project elements.
There is no substitute for local knowledge of customs and resources, with the network to make them work. The owner may specify that certain vendor items must be certified; however, the vendor may not be familiar with all the required equipment attributes when put onto a floating platform.
Everyone wants to make sure documentation is appropriate for the requirements. And certainly, failure to produce an appropriate certificate for a unique or long-delivery item on the day that an FPS is scheduled for sail to site can be devastating to a project and its delivery schedule. The ability of the equipment to give adequate service dictates the need for active vendor coordination.
In today’s climate of "fast-track" projects, vendor coordination can mean the difference in the project coming in on time or not. It may also govern the ability to maintain integrity in the future, with confidence. With the tremendous amount of equipment on a floating production unit – much of which must be either classed or certified – and the fact that a single project can have 100 vendors, as well as third-, fourth- and fifth-level sub-vendors, exacerbates the problem.
ABS’ vendor-coordination programs assist with the certification process management to provide a single point of contact for both vendors and clients on all issues. In this role, ABS wears many hats: educator, coordinator, approver and communicator. Many offshore vendors have now supplied equipment for floating projects and are unaware of the critical paperwork submittals required from owner, regulatory and class standpoints. Any document out of place could potentially hold up the entire project.
In any case, it is important to have a group of engineers whose sole purpose is to keep this process moving smoothly, and to have a documented system for future maintenance and replacement. Contractual terms are also important in the specification of vendor-certified equipment.
ABS and ABS-affiliated companies have some 2,000 employees in 150 offices in 60 countries to help execute offshore projects anywhere in the world, with a local understanding and sensitivity.
Risk Analysis Tools
Risk is a given in the offshore industry. There is no better time, however, to feel confident about managing risk. The industry has accumulated decades of successful experience operating in a variety of regions worldwide. Each region has its own set of technological challenges. The result is a deep "toolbox" of risk experience to be used in bettering exploration / production efficiencies worldwide.
Although the experience is there, at every stage of development there is a possibility of something happening that could jeopardize the project. Even once a project is ongoing, operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness are imperative. With that much on the line, owners must be able to accurately assess their risks, manage those risks and apply proven methods for maintaining operational efficiency.
"Risk," in terms of FPSs is generally limited to the risk of unintended incidents which may threaten personnel safety, physical assets or the environment, and it can also be applied to aspects such as downtime and operations efficiencies. Risk assessment is the process of gathering data and synthesizing information to develop an understanding of the risk of a particular enterprise.
This process involves answering key questions such as: What can go wrong? How likely is it? What are the impacts? Qualitative answers are often sufficient for making good decisions. However, much-more-detailed, quantitative techniques are available if the situation warrants. ABS, together with its affiliated company EQE (a leading, independent risk-management company) offers risk services to businesses, industries and government. The approach used is based on a solid foundation of engineering, science and technology.
Risk assessment techniques can be applied in almost all areas of the offshore business. Any FPS project must involve a good understanding of the risks and how they impact people associated with the operations. More and more regulators are striving to use risk-based approaches in formulating new regulations. The ability to conduct meaningful risk assessments continues to improve as more and better data are collected and computer applications become more accessible.
Regulatory Compliance
Maintaining integrity is a serious issue when regulators shut down or threaten to shut down production. While extreme, when mandatory shutdown occurs, it seriously affects credibility. In general, regulatory interfaces during operations may come from direct intervention of the regulator, but sometimes come with interface by the class society.
The first step is to ensure that the original design is in compliance with the regulatory regimes – be they flag, maritime safety or coastal-state authorities – many of which require / prefer class as a basic minimum standard. With fast-track projects now the norm, project teams need to make sure their designs are fully compliant. This necessity is somewhat onerous for those not familiar with maritime class concepts. Not being in compliance is a guarantee of later problems.
For many projects, class can act on behalf of the coastal and/or flag state, thus streamlining regulatory compliance by having these activities coordinated via a single entity to avoid duplication. For an FPS being deployed in the Gulf of Mexico, for example, there are overlaps between flag issues, Coastal State (USCG) issues, Coastal State (MMS) certified verification agent issues and ABS Class issues; much of the same material needs to be reviewed for each agency.
In maintaining integrity through regulatory compliance, owners gain confidence that regulations develop in an orderly and appropriate way and that no regulations appear that would unreasonably make the facility obsolete.
Separately, of late, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has become interested in to what extent FPSOs should comply with Marine Pollution (MARPOL). Several coastal states are developing new regulations, which may impact floating production units. It is important that non-profit class societies tend to keep the regulators informed and act as a balance in the system because, as independent bodies, class societies have the opportunity to put the risks in perspective.
This method allows marine and offshore industries to self-regulate safety of life, property and the environment. Thus, with understanding of the governing regulatory body and development of a regulatory compliance plan, industry ensures optimum communication and cooperation. Keeping regulators informed on the issues coming forward, and hearing their issues are keys to preventing a premature facility shutdown.
Safety-Compliance Management
Recent developments in marine safety, quality and environmental management have been directed toward ensuring that companies develop a management system model for safe operation, prevention of pollution and preservation of the environment, based on principles of the quality movement, as a key part of maintaining vessel integrity.
Management systems certification assists in maintaining the long-term integrity, and clearly demonstrates a company’s commitment to a safe, environmentally sensitive, quality operation. Safety-compliance management services, and the surveys / audits that g with them, cover comprehensive safe practices surveys, safety and health management systems, personnel safety, hazard communication and incident investigation / analysis.
These services include verification of a client’s emergency response, occupational health programs, employee training, record keeping and analysis, medical care and case management, and audits of client-selected contractors / subcontractors, including internal safety audits. The safety base rests largely with compliance with:
- Quality Management System – ISO 9002: Model for quality assurance in production, installation and servicing
- Environmental Protection – ISO 14001: Environmental management systems, specification with guidance for use
- Various personnel management systems, and
- International Safety Management Code (ISM) – IMO: Originated to ensure vessel operations were well-managed.
To best maintain integrity, appropriate development / certification / compliance help ensure that a client’s safety, quality and environmental management system is sufficient to effect the intentions of management. Onsite audits further facilitate this effort. ABS and affiliated companies have experience to conduct these audits efficiently.
Inspection, Maintenance
With advancements in computer systems, the tasks of planning / documenting execution of the maintenance plans for the vessel and its components are becoming more automated. Today, software exists to list all equipment requiring periodic maintenance, with details of inspection recommended by the manufacturer. Development of requirements for spares is also now part of the standard packages.
Additionally, programs allow for the inclusion of class-related survey items and owner-specific inspection periods. The easy facilitation of the process for the owner, operator and class society presents the opportunity to customize maintenance / inspection plans to a specific vessel using a Risk-Based Inspection strategy. RBI incorporates historical information for inspection / maintenance, with emphasis on the criticality of systems.
RBI allows the owner to concentrate resources and efforts in the areas – and with the items – that are most critical to operation integrity. RBI can be applied to process, hull, ship and safety systems, as well as structural components such as hull, mooring and process deck.
ABS the "Bureau" is now piloting a program using RBI as an alternate to the rigid periodic inspections of class. From the class perspective, the RBI process ensures that risks are evaluated, which allows the surveyor to also distribute his time toward the higher risk items and areas. Examples of the pilot programs include:
- Cossack Pioneer FPSO for Woodside Petroleum. Review and commentary on a full-scope process / structural RBI program for this FPSO located offshore Northwest Australia, including how the proposed RBI plan conforms to class requirements.
- P-35 FPSO for Petrobras. Development of the RBI program for this FPSO located offshore Brazil, includes agreement of the class society to the plan and includes instruction on the plan’s operation. It will be a full-scope process / hull / mooring RBI for an FPSO, together with the feedback system on how to incorporate reliability and historical events into ongoing changes to the plan as it evolves in the future.
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RBI will become a growing issue for the Gulf of Mexico, where planned offshore facilities are getting increasingly complex and operators are likely going to struggle to keep the systems safe and online. Aspects of an RBI program include: 1) Maintenance: reliability of data collected / analyzed; 2) Condition monitoring: to update general performance data with vessel / equipment-specific data; 3) Corrosion monitoring: to understand trends from baseline surveys; and 4) Business performance improvement: monitoring systems to ensure that the best system is delivered.
Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) can be developed within an RBI plan. RCM is the term used for setting the strategy and goals for short, intermediate and long-term maintenance using surveillance techniques to limit the service life of equipment items, thus optimizing the operational aspects of the FPS. RCM differs from preventive maintenance, which merely reworks and restores a time-based maintenance program.
Using Electronic Data Management Systems
The strength of the Asset Integrity Management (AIM) concept is its ability to tie all the tasks – design / construction / compliance, etc. – into one intelligent system where component parts can act together. Traditionally, after approving the design, surveys are carried out during construction and periodically, generally annually, to judge fitness for purpose against prescriptive renewal criteria so that the vessel remains safe until the next, five-year-interval, "special survey."
The owner of an FPSO also may require further assurance that the vessel will not return to dry dock at the end of five years. Such extensions to the historical marine platform require many new adjustments to "marine" understandings.
Integration within one information system facilitates an objective survey and support for judgments that are necessary about condition and continued fitness for purpose. ABS provides this level of vessel information system in a program known as SafeNet.
For a number of years, class societies have not been willing to move from the traditional annual inspections. Today, however, advanced information systems, such as SafeNet, facilitate more knowledge-based decisions, with inspection schedules tied to equipment requirements.
ABS is looking at this approach specifically for floating production units. Providing an AIM system within a framework of sophisticated electronic databases and data processing – with all systems linked together – is the wave of the future.
Cooperation Between Owner And Class Society
The cooperation of all parties in the offshore arena is necessary to develop win-win situations developing a suitable balance between safety and operation efficiency. One of the best illustrations of this is perhaps the development of a modification plan for an FPSO offshore West Africa. The vessel required extensive modifications to expand its production capacity and facilitate enhanced oil recovery while maintaining operation over two construction seasons.
ABS’ responsibilities included review of engineering and construction plans and survey / certification of all offshore equipment / modifications taking place on the vessel. The FPSO’s operations moved from the original design level of 80,000 bpd to about 120,000 bpd.
Field life, originally less than five years, is now more than 15 years. Modifications included replacement of bottom plate, which ABS successfully carried out under survey, and onsite, using a unique coffer dam arrangement to allow the bottom plate to be removed and rewelded into place. Close communications with contractors and the vessel owner kept the project on schedule without interruption of the FPSO’s operations.
Conclusion
Complex offshore processes and environments call for non-traditional approaches to the challenge of operating safely while pursuing project objectives. New regional and technical issues are challenging systems more than ever before. Class societies are responding with the development of applicable risk-based rules and guidelines. Class is acquiring skills and technologies through ABS-affiliated companies, which allow an integrated approach to management of assets and maintaining the integrity of those assets.
Production is coming onstream with greater speed, dramatically decreasing the time from concept to first oil. Because of the importance of the asset to cash flow, the integrity of that asset is of paramount importance to the owner, the financial institution, banks, the regulator and the class society. All are stakeholders in managing the asset’s integrity. The philosophical position of the class societies has not really changed. What has changed is the marketplace, and how work is executed.
Where a new design may not specifically comply with a prescriptive requirement, ABS works with the designer to demonstrate an equivalent level of safety. Risk techniques are an increasing means of fulfilling this need.
As class embraces a variety of risk-based approaches, the Bureau is rethinking traditional prescriptive rules based on prior experience, to bring a more open approach. Industry can now comply with rules based on predicting behaviors and minimizing risk. From a commercial viewpoint, operators are now able to optimize dollars and resources by focusing capital on technical areas of most concern.
The future of the standards development at ABS will be
based on risk methods. The way of dealing with the traditional prescriptive codes and standards is undergoing
fundamental change. A vast number of prescriptive rules leads to a compliance culture, with available funds
perhaps better spent studying the risk to a facility. ABS is applying its experience and well-seasoned
risk-analysis methodology to interact with industry in producing new rules, while working with committees on
industry standards.
The author |
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Malcolm Sharples, vice president of Offshore Project Development for ABS, is responsible for worldwide services for managing risk in the offshore market. He holds a BS in engineering science from the University of Western Ontario, and a PhD in structural engineering from the University of Cambridge in the UK. |
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Part 1 |
