Oil and gas industry interest is surging in using remote survey technologies for more cost-efficient, safer, and lower-carbon certification, verification, and inspection of assets and operations. Amid COVID-19 travel restrictions in 2020, DNV GL has conducted more than 4,000 remote surveys for the sector. These have provided the supply chain with the assurance it needs to keep projects and operations running safely and on schedule. Remote surveys involve fixed and mobile cameras (e.g., smartphones) giving customers instant access to DNV GL experts worldwide for verification, classification, and certification of assets, verification of materials and components, inspection, and marine assurance. The growing track record for remote survey technology could soon make it the method of choice for inspections in some places and circumstances, according to a senior expert at one leading oil and gas exploration and production company.

KBR announced that its joint venture with SOCAR, who is undertaking the engineering design phase of the Azeri Central East (ACE) platform, is now nearing completion. The ACE platform is the first of its kind to be designed through all phases, from concept to front-end engineering design and detailed design, to fully use KBR’s digital twin technology. The benefits of the digital twin continue to be used as the ACE platform moves into fabrication and commissioning, which is being undertaken in Azerbaijan. Digital twin technology creates a platform for all involved in the process to access all project information from anywhere in the world through all phases. The technology allows users to view procurement status and materials availability.

Successful identification, evaluation, and management of bottlenecks in a complex, offshore production processing system—though challenging—can significantly increase daily production for the system owner. Historically, such optimization plans were developed in relative isolation of the entire production system from wellhead to export pipeline. That approach benefits simplistic systems with sufficient ullage and in which discrete changes do not affect other flow system components. However, the Constitution platform in the Green Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico, which was commissioned in 2006 with a nameplate capacity of 70,000 BOPD, is a complex system with four fields in varying stages of development. These fields have both dry and wet tree wells with varying fluid compositions and pressures flowing through the facility, which necessitates varying process requirements, making it challenging to manage. Such a system requires a holistic and focused approach by all technical and commercial disciplines. This paper focuses on a multidisciplinary process developed to identify, evaluate, and eliminate interdependent bottlenecks on the Constitution platform and its flowline network during a 16-month period. A multidisciplinary study was kicked off in 2017 to address these complex bottlenecking issues, and the resulting project achieved a 30% improvement in deliverability of the process system.

Inspection of underwater assets on oil and gas offshore platforms are required to assess asset integrity, and whether intervention is required. These assets include mooring chains, fairleads, anodes and ballast tanks. Typically, calipers are used for taking measurements of these objects. Limitations of this technique include inaccuracy, inefficiency and potential damage to the asset. Compact underwater camera systems, including imaging sensors and lighting, are proposed to solve limitations of caliper measurements. Data processing creates scaled 3D models for measurement analysis and automatic fault detection. This paper presents Lantern Eye-S, a stereo-based visual measurement system developed by the authors. It is a stereo imaging system, which includes a stereo camera pair linked to a set of underwater strobes. It is extremely compact and can be deployed on very small ROVs, down to the 30kg class. Results are available as quickly as 5 minutes for in-situ analysis and assessment. Final results are available in 8 hours for detailed inspection. Calibration accounts for the water environment the images are taken, primarily to account for salinity in the water. Measurements can be automatically extracted, and comparisons are made to as-built drawings. Validation of the measurement is also undertaken with a known ground truth object placed in the water, to ensure integrity in the measurement.

Results include offshore integration and deployment on a mini-ROV (30kg class) and working class ROV (multiple tons). An important result from this work is that calipers were found to typically overestimate dimensions on mooring chain diameters. High accuracy measurements of small objects, with a compact camera system, was shown to be possible with the work in this paper. The use of a novel validation apparatus and uncertainty analysis allows appropriate levels of confidence to be attributed to the acquired analytics.

Business Continuity Management (BCM) identifies an organization's priorities and prepares solutions to address disruptive threats. It supports the design and implementation of detailed plans to protect the value creating operations of an organization. However, Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for offshore oil and gas facilities is not commonly developed by all Exploration and Production (E&P) companies, thus exposing some smaller (E&P) companies to significant risks arising from business disruptions.

The proposed methodology was developed in accordance with the following standards; NCEMA 7001 (2015) Guidelines adopted by UAE government entities, ISO 22301 (2012) Business Continuity Management Systems and Business Continuity Institute (BCI) Good Practice Guide (2018). This case study demonstrates the application of these standards for a marginal crude oil E&P company encompassing offshore facilities.

The paper describes the business continuity plans developed for offshore facilities, which includeWellhead Processing Platforms (WPP), subsea pipelines and the floating assets, such as the Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, or a Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) vessel, based on various major operational disruptive scenarios e.g. the scenarios encompassing the loss of facilities, people and/or supplies etc.

Unlike the BCP for an office location, it is shown that a hybrid strategy (standby and post requisition) is more appropriate for offshore facilities due to the inherent logistical complications of an offshore operation. A standby technique is used for short-term interruption of the facilities, while a post-incident acquisition technique is applied for longer term unavailability incidents. An appropriate recovery strategies is developed for all case studies to achieve the Minimum Business Continuity Objective (MBCO) prior to the operation's full recovery. Finally, this approach facilitates the validation of the BCP.

Business continuity management is emerging as an essential part of sound corporate governance, but knowledge and experience in BCM by E&P companies is not yet widespread. The case studies presented in this research provides valuable guidance on the development of business continuity plans in accordance with international standards, and demonstrates how the implementation of BCM alongside an effective Emergency Response Program (ERP) increases the level of business resilience of an organization.

The award-winning Subsea Equipment Australia Reliability (SEAR) Joint Industry Project (JIP); is a partnership led by Wood with participation from a group of operators namely Chevron Australia, ConocoPhillips, Inpex, Santos, Shell Australia and Woodside. Now delivering Phase 6, the JIP is focused on collaboration and knowledge sharing in order to improve the competitiveness of Australia's oil & gas industry by addressing critical challenges associated with subsea equipment failing prematurely.

This paper will provide an overview of the SEAR JIP and outline lessons learned, and value created. Results from the reliability database will be presented as well as findings from ongoing field trials on the four living laboratories deployed in different geographic locations and water depths in Northern Australia. This paper will also discuss challenges associated with subsea controls umbilicals that are prone to emit hydrogen gas and fluids at the surface facility through the electrical junction boxes.

The end goal of SEAR JIP is to develop an industry wide recommended practice, with regional guidance notes for equipment and field design. The recommended practice is intended to reduce operating cost for existing and future projects, while identifying technologies that are specific to Australian waters.

The first year of operation is a crucial period after the handover of a petroleum facility from the project phase. To minimise downtime and costs, it is essential to anticipate equipment breakdown, and one of method is to have spare parts readily available. There are studies on spare parts inventory forecasting based on the amount of historical operation data or condition-monitoring data. However, determining the initial spare parts inventory of a petroleum facility with limited historical data is a challenge, and often in the project phases the information is not comprehensive enough to support the decision-making. Thus, the paper will propose a decision-making method for the initial inventory of a new petroleum facility.

The proposed method aims to simplify the spare parts assessment, defining the affecting parameters and simplifying the means to evaluate them. The result shows a means for determining the affecting parameters for various situations, as well as for ranking the criticality. Especially for the initial project condition or in events where data is not readily available, the current industry practices will be presented to mitigate the lack of information in the assessment. Finally, a case study is presented to show the application of the framework in two new petroleum projects.

While industrial revolution 4.0 transforming the manufacturing industry with the adoption of computers and enhanced with smart and autonomous system that comes with big data and machine learning capability, operators in oil and gas industry also embarked on its evolution, advancing in end-to-end project delivery efficiency through simplification and transformation, with the objective to deliver best-in-class project in a consistent manner.

This paper demonstrates a few key changes implemented by Civil, Structural and Offshore Engineering discipline to support the project delivery evolution by referring to a recent wellhead platform project Shell delivered. The principles of simplification and transformation were embraced since the early front end development phase, started from competitive scoping through the development of an intent/requirements-based technical requirements tailored to the project, considered all the key and relevant lessons learnt from respective operator combined with widely referred industry specifications. An intend-based design driven by efficient execution strategy has also shorten the fabrication and installation duration where early Mechanical Completion can be achieved by carefully bringing forward certain scope to front-end loading (FEL) with contractor's commitment to work within a stretched, proper-defined boundaries.

Another key change project implemented is through the enhancement in supply chain model that aims to accelerate the delivery schedule. Contractors were empowered and took full accountability under the EPC contract, after alignment of project intent, goals and owner/contractor interest. Cross-organization collaboration between operating units also allow project and/or sub-systems across projects to approach market in a joint campaign, benefits all parties from economy of scale.

The ultimate purpose of having efficient project delivery is to drive CAPEX down, enable more marginal fields development become economically feasible. Through the standardization of design requirements and smart replication, this will become the new baseline (in term of cost and schedule) to deliver future standard wellhead platform and transforming wellhead platform delivery to something like block manufacturing industry.

Decisions in E&P ventures are affected by Bias, Blindness, and Illusions (BBI) which permeate our analyses, interpretations and decisions. This one-day course examines the influence of these cognitive pitfalls and presents techniques that can be used to mitigate their impact. Bias refers to errors in thinking whereby interpretations and judgments are drawn in an illogical fashion. Blindness is the condition where we fail to see an unexpected event in plain sight. Illusions refer to misleading beliefs based on a false impression of reality. All three can lead to poor decisions regarding which work to undertake, what issues to focus on, and whether to forge ahead or walk away from a project. Strategic thinking and planning are key elements in an organisation’s journey to maximise value to shareholders, customers, and employees. Through this workshop, attendees will go through the different processes involved in strategic planning including the elements of organisational SWOT, business scenario and options development, elaboration of strategic options and communication to stakeholders. Examples are provided including corporate, business unit and department case studies. This seminar will teach participants how to identify, evaluate, and quantify risk and uncertainty in everyday oil and gas economic situations. It reviews the development of pragmatic tools, methods, and understandings for professionals that are applicable to companies of all sizes. The seminar also briefly reviews statistics, the relationship between risk and return, and hedging and future markets.

The Technical Programme Committee of APOGCE 2021 invites you to submit a paper proposal and contribute to this flagship event. A proper review of your paper proposal requires that it contain adequate information on which to make a judgment. Download our instructions guide to assist you with preparing your paper proposal. The paper proposal should have the necessary clearance before it is submitted to APOGCE 2021. Prospective authors should advise of any clearance problems when the paper proposal is submitted.