In the oil and gas industry today it is increased focus on how assets are managed. Relevant information regarding the various assets in operation are required and must be made available for operators, engineers as well as managers within the organization, and in some cases also for classification and regulatory agencies. The demand is mainly driven by increased focus on environmental issues, but also by the fact that assets are operated beyond their initial design life.
The development in the IT industry makes it possible for engineers to collaborate more extensively. Engineers from oil companies, operators, consultants and vendors are working on the same asset. Efficient decision processes requires that the data from the computer systems are made available to the different contributors.
In the future we will se that integrity management of assets for the offshore industry will be supported by software systems with centrally stored databases that is accessible over the world wide area network. The asset integrity management systems will offer configuration to meet the customer specific needs as well as tailored integration to other in-house applications, e.g. SAP or ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems. Thus the same platform will serve a wider range of personnel with an invested interest in the asset management, e.g. engineers, inspectors, managers.
This paper illustrates the vision of how the new technology can service the management of asset integrity. Furthermore, the paper presents a case study of how DNV provides technical services and software support to meet the various challenges with respect to managing the Matterhorn TLP, be that finite element analysis, coupled analysis, risk based analysis, knowledge and data management.
A major challenge in today's operations is to ensure fitness for purpose of assets with optimal use of effort whilst complying with company policies and regulatory requirements.
The paper provides an overview of the vision and methodology of integrity management including life cycle aspects and decision making challenges. It further looks into the possibilities of asset integrity management software. Finally, the integrity management case study of Matterhorn TLP is presented with services and software support by DNV applying the general methodology developed by TOTAL for its floating units, see reference 1.
In order to satisfy growing concerns about safety and risk exposure businesses are increasingly looking for improvements in integrity management processes and software support. By integrity management we understand all activities undertaken to secure asset operation during the complete operational life. Risk is inherent in all aspects of the operation, and hence, management of risk is central to asset integrity management. New regulations in several industries require risk management on a much broader scale than previous practice. Risk is no longer the concern of a small group of risk experts, rather all departments involved in asset operations have to perform risk evaluations.
Good integrity management has an impact on several business processes. We identify maintenance, inspection, risk evaluation and communication as the principle business processes involved.
