Special Report – Next Generation Engineering Content and Asset Information Management Services by The Magazine Production Company

SPECIAL REPORT

Next Generation Engineering Content and Asset Information Management Services

AIM for Your Future The Case for Record Keeping Looking for Long Term ProďŹ t A Need to Know You Have to Know it and Need to Show it

Sponsored by

Published by Global Business Media

Published by Global Business Media Global Business Media Limited 62 The Street Ashtead Surrey KT21 1AT United Kingdom Switchboard: +44 (0)1737 850 939 Fax: +44 (0)1737 851 952 Email: info@globalbusinessmedia.org Website: www.globalbusinessmedia.org Publisher Kevin Bell Business Development Director Marie-Anne Brooks Editor John Hancock

The Evolution of AIM AIM to Do More Do You Need AIM? AIM in the Cloud AIM for Value AIM for Confidence and Control About BlueCielo

The Case for Record Keeping John Hancock, Editor

Levels and Dimensions of Complexity Pushing the Envelope A Long Term Investment Doing More Under the Sea

Looking for Long Term Profit

Peter Dunwell, Correspondent

Senior Project Manager Steve Banks

New Routes to Sustainable Profit

Advertising Executives Michael McCarthy Abigail Coombes

Information Unlocks Opportunities

Extracting Every Drop of Value Extended Reach, Extended Life and Enhanced Recovery

Production Manager Paul Davies

Monitoring Asset Condition and System Information

For further information visit: www.globalbusinessmedia.org

A Need to Know

The opinions and views expressed in the editorial content in this publication are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily represent the views of any organization with which they may be associated.

Planned Maintenance is Effective Maintenance

Material in advertisements and promotional features may be considered to represent the views of the advertisers and promoters. The views and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily express the views of the Publishers or the Editor. While every care has been taken in the preparation of this publication, neither the Publishers nor the Editor are responsible for such opinions and views or for any inaccuracies in the articles.

Francis Slade, Staff Writer

Safe and Clean A Complex Content Challenge The Digital Approach

You Have to Know it and Need to Show it

John Hancock, Editor

Information is Value Asset Management State of the Assets A History of Maintenance

ÂŠ 2014. The entire contents of this publication are protected by copyright. Full details are available from the Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Longer Life; End of Life

References

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Foreword W

E LIVE, today, in a knowledge economy;

In the second piece we consider the case for record

indeed, we might say a knowledge world,

keeping and why it is such an important component

so universal is the need to know. We are becoming

in offshore oil and gas operations. Peter Dunwell

a society of ‘infoholics’, addicted to knowing

continues with one of the sector’s key priorities - the

something about everything. However, with more

generation of profits - and examines how knowledge

information, we need more ways to organize

about a field and the techniques of production can

and keep it, otherwise it becomes like any other

contribute positively to that. Francis Slade builds on

disorganized parts of life… just stuff. In particular,

that theme with the importance of information and

businesses need information and records content

good records for businesses investing tens of millions

on an ever growing scale, not only to conduct

or more dollars in places where conditions are at their

their activities, but also to manage their market

most challenging and where valuable assets are,

presence and to retain their customer base. And

literally, left out in the water. He looks at how records

for businesses, even more than for individuals,

can contribute to a proper maintenance program to

organizing information into useful knowledge is

save cost and extend useful life. Finally we come at

a real challenge; specifically a record keeping

the topic through the way the sector operates and, in

challenge. Nowhere is that more true than in the

particular, how companies have to be able not only

offshore energy sector.

to do things properly but demonstrate to others that

The opening article in this Special Report looks at the

this has been the case.

evolution of information management solutions from

Modern record keeping and content management

paper-based archives through Engineering Content

is now as important a part of good business practice

Management to Asset Information Management

as process, finance, IT or marketing; in fact, it’s what

(AIM) in the Cloud. BlueCielo examines the

provides the material with which they can all function.

benefits that AIM solutions can offer to companies in Oil & Gas industries, and offers a simple way to assess current AIM maturity levels within your organization to define whether or not an AIM solution would increase profitability.

John Hancock Editor

John Hancock joined as Editor of Offshore Technology Reports in early 2012. A journalist for nearly 25 years, John has written and edited articles and papers on a range of engineering, support services and technology topics as well as for key events in the sector. Subjects have included aero-engineering, testing, aviation IT, materials engineering, weapons research, supply chain, logistics and naval engineering.

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AIM for Your Future Edwin van Dijk, Director of Product Management, BlueCielo ECM Solutions

AIM Solutions

Contact Details: +31 (0)70 413 37 00 / Edwin.Van.Dijk@bluecieloecm.com Website: www.bluecieloecm.com

Discover

Can a traditional Engineering Document Management System ensure profitability into the future? BlueCielo discusses when Asset Information Management (AIM) becomes essential.

W N E R /O P E R ATO R S ARE under pressure to maintain their organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profitability in increasingly volatile market s. Through indus tr y disintegration, technology shif ts and innovations, more specialized players surface within the supplier network and knowledge scarcit y compounds the geographic separation of teams. In this environment, maintaining and improving existing assets becomes challenging, especially with ever- changing and tightening regulation. Ensuring sustained profitability leads to the unending pursuit of zero down-time, but this is complicated by the increasing longevity of aging infrastructure. As timeframes shorten, assets must be re-used and reconfigured in order to deliver a faster response time and allow the organization to achieve the highest profit. The convergence of these market dynamics makes it hard for organizations to maintain crucial asset information as-built. However, despite this need for increased agility, risk must be managed. Without accurate, up-

Monitor to-date working procedures and technical documentation, plant managers, on-site maintenance and operational personnel cannot perform their work efficiently and without accidents. Sustained profitability therefore demands up-to-date, accurate asset-related technical information. Owner/Operators must not only monitor both asset and project performance; they also need to ensure that all changes comply with relevant regulations at all stages and that their information management supports a full audit trail to protect their license to operate. With multiple projects running simultaneously, multiple engineers working concurrently within change projects and work being outsourced to external contractors, control over all modifications becomes very complex. What is required to fulfil the needs of this changing business and technology climate is a system of record to discover, monitor, and protect as-built asset information, providing the basis for operational results created and exchanged during engineering while used in every day operations and maintenance.

Protect Engineering Data Management throughout the Asset Lifecycle

BlueCielo is an independent global player which has built the largest share of successful customer deployments worldwide over the past 30 years. Through our commitment and focus, we have unparalleled expertise within the field of Asset Information Management. Over $1.5 trillion assets are managed with our solution, contributing daily to the revenue of the largest global enterprises.

www.bluecieloecm.com THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL MARKET DYNAMICS

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“It is extremely important that all parties work in one system. This is the only way that whether they are onshore, offshore, supplier, contractor or my own office, every party can be guaranteed fast and easy access so that document availability is never an issue.”

The Evolution of AIM As market complexity has evolved, so too have the systems that support engineering information management. Paper-based archives are increasingly being replaced with digital warehouses so that data is available globally. Manual processes such as project management, approval cycles and performance monitoring can now be automated, saving time and resources and simplifying the audit process. However, information management solutions differ greatly in the functionality they offer, and do not always match the needs of the organization. A Document (or Drawing) Management System (DMS) manages single document or drawing files. Files may be created, approved, updated and made available to the organization, before being archived. This is called the Document Lifecycle. However, DMS does not manage the essential relationships between documents or the asset(s) to which they relate. While DMS functionality is sufficient for generic document management, it does not meet the needs of managing technical engineering information during change projects. Engineering Content Management (ECM) solutions enlarge on this scope by managing all of the data used during engineering: technical documents, drawings and data per project. ECM supports secure access to controlled content as well as options for search and retrieval, view, redline, markup

and compare, CAD integration (such as reference management, X-refs, Hybrids, assembly structures and 3D support), document workflows, revision management and audit trail logging. Asset Information Management (AIM) solutions have evolved further to meet the needs of global Owner/Operators. An AIM solution not only manages the documents, drawings and all data from engineering projects, (Document Lifecycle management), it also manages the Project Lifecycle and all of the information relating to an asset throughout the entire Asset Lifecycle. AIM takes ECM further through the creation of “tag-doc” relationships. Unique asset identifiers (tag numbers) allow users to immediately access related documents through search, use of predefined hotspots or through integration with Facility Management or Enterprise Asset Management systems. This integration creates feedback functionality, connecting maintenance and engineering. AIM solutions also provide an overview of the active and closed projects in which master documents are being used and tracks which standards are in use in which projects. AIM facilitates Master Data Management, controls the assignment of documentation to the various change projects while in relation to the assets, manages concurrent projects and handles data exchange with external contractors. It allows for the isolation of work in progress and provides all tools for documents used in multiple modification

– Facility MANAGER, ExxonMobil

AIM MATURITY IN THE ORGANIZATION – SEE “AIM TO DO MORE” ON NEXT PAGE FOR EXPLANATION

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projects at the same time. This enables monitoring across sites (and processes) while protecting data consistency and compliance. In this way, AIM becomes an essential part of optimizing asset management and increasing profitability. AIM solutions are also highly adaptive and can be implemented to facilitate various levels of maturity within the organization – but with the scalability to support the growth of your business.

AIM to Do More If you already have a traditional Document (or Drawing) Management System (DMS), you may think that this is sufficient for your business needs, but this is in fact dependent on the maturity of AIM within your organization. Assessing the level of AIM maturity within the organization can be difficult, as global sites may operate at different maturity levels. Mergers and acquisitions may lead to a variety of processes and standards being used, with information management systems ranging from paper archives on one site to digital document management at another. These differences cause a great challenge: lack of standardization. Variance in naming conventions, workflows and metadata management can complicate global collaboration and data exchange and decrease business efficiency. The graph on the previous page represents the evolution of AIM needs in relation to organizational maturity levels. The Y axis, Engineering Complexity, relates to the technological complexity of your assets, their associated documents and drawings. It is also related to how rigorous your data management process needs to be to meet regulatory requirements and ensure operational excellence. The X axis, Intensity of Change, describes the number of change projects executed in a year (from small plant modifications up to large capital projects) in which the same documentation could be impacted during concurrent engineering. How fast do you need to change to stay competitive – whether this change is needed for innovation, technology shifts, ensuring compliance or for maintenance and control? If you look at the graph, consider where your organization is today. What progress do you need to achieve in the next two to five years to remain competitive? Does your situation today support both

your organization’s current requirements and its future needs?

Do You Need AIM? So would an AIM solution really provide you with measurable benefits? Answer the three questions below to find out: ■ Do you have a complete view to the granular level of up-to-date master data of all your assets? ■ Are you aware of all changes that are in progress at all your sites? Not just as designed or as-built, but as pending in various modification project stages or even within concurrent projects. ■ Do you manage a unified process so that the data is kept complete and consistent while complying with internal and external regulations? If you answered “No” to any of these questions, then you could benefit from an AIM solution.

AIM in the Cloud Cloud technology is a key trend, and it is not only a reality that is here to stay, it is a strategy that every business must consider in order to remain competitive in the global market. The more complex the installation and the more information and suppliers are involved, the more relevant the case is for AIM in the Cloud. Cloud-based solutions may be offered in several deployment models: as a private Cloud, a public Cloud, hosted or as a softwareas-a-service (SaaS) solution. An emerging option known as the hybrid Cloud combines the different deployment models. Each model comes with its own benefits and risks, so selection is greatly affected by the specific regulatory and business compliance needs of your organization. Deployment models are not the only consideration that must be weighed when deciding whether or not to migrate to a Cloud-based AIM solution – data security, any-time access to data and a full audit trail are all essential requirements. The (Cloudbased) AIM solution also needs to offer sufficient functionality to support and optimize business processes, ensure up-to-date, as-built information and facilitate change management projects. In addition, the solution must assure regulatory compliance to protect a company’s licence to operate. Attention should also be given to issues such as user training, password identification and logins, group filing systems and, of course,

AIM Solutions

Discover Monitor Protect Engineering Data Management throughout the Asset Lifecycle

www.bluecieloecm.com

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“BlueCielo Meridian Enterprise serves as a single point of truth, allowing us to quickly and easily discover the most up-to-date version of a document, whenever and wherever we need it. We are now able to save significant capital annually and greatly enhance our operational efficiency. Meridian reduces

integration with existing enterprise, facility management and maintenance systems.

AIM for Value Improving the management of your assetrelated technical information leads to measurable business benefits. With an AIM solution, you can expect to: • Improve Efficiency: Reduce the time needed to find up-to-date asset information and ensure the right content is always available at the right time for each stakeholder, throughout the entire asset lifecycle. • Reduce Costs: Reduce or avoid emergency maintenance, ensure seamless data handover, prevent the reproduction of “lost” or outdated asset information and have the right spare parts in stock. • Enhance Quality: Gradually improve your legacy data while working with a fully integrated contractor network. • Improve Regulatory Compliance: Ensure full proof of control for internal and external audits and compliance with standards, procedures and regulations.

the risks associated with regulatory noncompliance, including shutdowns, fines, and lengthy regulatory reviews and audits.” – Project Manager, Laricina Energy

BLUECIELO’S AIM SOLUTION

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AIM for Conﬁdence & Control BlueCielo’s Asset Information Management (AIM) solution is the world’s only system of record that integrates departments, business applications, contractors and suppliers to reduce process downtime, increase safety and improve operational revenue. Unlike departmental point solutions that are limited and are not purpose-built from inception, the BlueCielo AIM solution is the most complete solution to manage all concurrent plant modifications (small, medium and large) to maintain as-built master data for Operations and Maintenance. Our AIM solution offers you confidence and control through: Complete Discovery Quickly and easily access the latest, accurate asset information in as much detail as you want. Reliable Monitoring Receive alerts for ‘out of specification’, missing master documents or changes in any step or stage and escalations of those alerts. Comprehensive Protection Ensure compliance with regulations, internal policies and procedures, while protecting your valuable asset data.

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BlueCielo started offering Cloud-based solutions ten years ago. Our AIM solutions can be deployed independently of the operating system, either in a hybrid Cloud, a private Cloud or hosted. The entire solution offering includes key capabilities such as master data and Asset Information Management, global collaboration and data exchange, transmittal management and trusted security protocols. In addition, BlueCielo’s AIM solutions support a full audit trail and are compliant with governmental, environmental, safety and quality regulations. BlueCielo’s AIM solution offers the following key benefits: • Asset Information Management from a single point of truth throughout the asset lifecycle • Master Data Management with flexible revision management and project workflow support • Management of Change (MoC) support to track documents in multiple projects and maintain data as-built • Simplify data exchange and enhance global collaboration while assuring a full audit trail • Achieve seamless data handover maintaining “tag-doc relations” and publish to the enterprise • Regulatory compliance to minimize risk and lower total cost of ownership.

About BlueCielo BlueCielo provides the leading software solution to discover, monitor and protect asset information throughout the asset lifecycle.

AIM Solutions

Our Engineering Content Management (ECM) and Asset Information Management (AIM) solutions provide a single point of truth for asset-related data to ensure that accurate, up-to-date information is always easily accessible. BlueCielo’s solutions reduce costs, improve efficiency and increase data quality, enabling our customers to maximize profitability and demonstrate regulatory compliance by measurably reducing risk. BlueCielo is an independent global organization which has built the largest share of successful customer deployments in the Oil and Gas industry worldwide over the past 30 years. Our Professional Services team has unparalleled expertise within the field of Asset Information Management. Over $1.5 trillion assets are managed with our solution, contributing daily to the revenue of the largest global enterprises.

Discover Monitor Protect Engineering Data Management throughout the Asset Lifecycle

The company is headquartered in The Netherlands and has offices across the United States, Brazil and Europe, as well as an international network of partners that ensures local service and support for our software solution BlueCielo Meridian Enterprise. BlueCielo is an official partner of Autodesk, IBM, Microsoft, SolidWorks and Oracle. To learn more about how our AIM solutions can benefit your company, visit www.bluecieloecm.com/AIM-OTC

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The Case for Record Keeping John Hancock, Editor There is a need to understand the many and complex challenges and equipment that keep offshore oil and gas in business

What is certain in all of this is an imperative for accurate, accessible and usable records and that managing such an industry will stretch record keeping capability to its extremes

Levels and Dimensions of Complexity The discovery and production of subsea energy engages a wide range of engineering disciplines driving an array of specialist technology, equipment and operating methods for operations and processes conducted under water and offshore. Furthermore, “Subsea [activities] are usually split into shallow water and deep water categories to distinguish between the different facilities and approaches that are needed.”1 But, by any definition, subsea or offshore oil and gas facilities are among the most demanding and costly commercial activities undertaken anywhere. The oceans are ‘last frontier’ repositories for traditional carbon-based fuels such as oil and gas and are increasingly seen as possessing potential for renewable energy, limited only by the technology available to realize that potential. Infield Systems’ latest research published in late February 20132 suggests that, “… the subsea industry is amongst the most promising in the offshore oil and gas world, with subsea capital expenditure (Capex) set to grow at a staggering 14.8% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) to 2017.” In a similar vein, Jason Waldie, Associate Director at energy industry analysts, Douglas-Westwood’s3, speaking at the 2011 Subsea Asia Conference, was projecting more than 7,000 fixed and more than 200 floating platforms, and with 190,000 km of pipeline currently installed plus a number of major modification programs to push growth in offshore operations and maintenance in the next couple of years. It isn’t only the growth of new fields but also the life extension of established fields that is stretching oil and gas production life cycles to extents that were not previously envisaged and that, in turn, require equipment to be used some way beyond its designed working life. What is certain in all of this is an imperative for accurate, accessible and usable records and that managing such an industry will stretch record keeping capability to its extremes. This paper will focus on that imperative – what it

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means and how it manifests itself: but first, we’ll need a context in which to place this need for good records.

Pushing the Envelope Further on in his conference presentation, Jason Waldie added that the production and use of natural gas is set “to soar” in the period to 2021 with deepwater gas identified “to be of growing importance.” Part of the reason for this is the abundance of natural gas available beneath the oceans and part the fact that gas power plants require the lowest capital expenditure for the amount of energy they produce. But whether it’s oil or gas being produced, the subsea offshore energy sector will be growing for some time into the future and, given the depletion and finite nature of most reserves accessible from land, producers will be looking to exploit ever more challenging conditions and depths in order to win every possible drop of carbon-based fuels while longer term renewable resources are still being developed. Not only is this a complex business in engineering and geographical / topographical terms, but it has also evolved as it has developed. For instance, as Oil & Gas UK explained, “When development of the North Sea fields began in the mid-60s, the industry had never before faced such a hostile environment. Whilst simple platform designs derived from those used in the Gulf of Mexico sufficed for the shallow southern North Sea, the severe storms and great water depths of the northern North Sea called for major engineering and technological innovation. Production facilities had to be designed to withstand wind gusts of 180 km/hour and waves 30 meters high.”4

A Long Term Investment Notwithstanding all of these variables, oil and gas fields are not short term investments. From exploration and discovery, through commercial drilling, production and continual operation to final decommissioning can span well over 50 years. Few enough businesses plan five years

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AIM Solutions

Discover Monitor Protect Engineering Data Management throughout the Asset Lifecycle

ahead let alone five or more decades! Add to that the enormous cost of exploiting reserves and getting products to market with the over-riding imperative to be safe, to minimize environmental impact for an extractive industry, and to be able to be accountable for everything that happened (even if it happened three or four decades ago, under a different management team) and it can be seen why good quality records are so important to this business. The final challenge to bring into this context is the requirement for maintenance and overhaul of equipment. The development of subsea oil and gas fields requires specialized equipment which must be reliable enough to safeguard the environment, and make the exploitation of subsea hydrocarbons economically feasible. From the platforms (rigs) to the wellhead with its Christmas tree array of valves, sensors and controls, to the kilometers of pipework that tie it all together, everything has to be maintained to a clear schedule to avoid unexpected failures for which the expense can range from a couple of days’ lost production

to the nightmare of a product spill into the sea. And the task continues to grow in complexity as technology makes ever more difficult reserves accessible and puts ever more work onto the seabed.

Doing More Under the Sea While platforms, wellheads and Christmas trees have been around for a long time, a more recent development has been subsea processing and the equipment associated with it. Subsea process systems are complex pieces of equipment, adding significantly to any inspection repair and maintenance (IRM) program. In Offshore Technology ‘The Subsea Processing Promise’5 Gareth Evans explains that, for over 20 years subsea processing has been poised as one of the most potentially promising technology developments in the offshore industry – and now, shifting factors within the sector over this period have finally begun to tip the balance in its favor. In this context, good records are part and parcel with good business practice.

www.bluecieloecm.com

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Looking for Long Term Profit Peter Dunwell, Correspondent Using a range of techniques, operators are finding ways to extract profits even from places once deemed not worth exploiting

When the price is right and can be realized, people will develop extraordinary engineering and technology programs in pursuit of a profit. In the case of deep sea exploration for and production of oil and gas, this has spurred enormous sector growth which has, in turn, driven incredible engineering

New Routes to Sustainable Proﬁt In his article above, John Hancock touches upon the subject of maintenance as a key area where records and information will be important components in good practice. Here we will explore the economic case for and drivers of a program for maintenance and the improvement of existing assets with their capability: plus we’ll look at developments improving productivity. Much of the world’s carbon fuel reserves are discovered but not all are yet exploited; newly discovered reserves tend to be in inaccessible or inhospitable environments. Particularly, significant reserves of oil and gas are to be found at increasing distances from land and ever greater depths beneath the oceans. It’s a challenge. But, when the price is right and can be realized, people will develop extraordinary engineering and technology programs in pursuit of a profit. In the case of deep sea exploration for and production of oil and gas, this has spurred enormous sector growth which has, in turn, driven incredible engineering and construction feats whose maintenance and continued usefulness are fundamental to profitability.

Extracting Every Drop of Value And it isn’t only new discoveries that offer the possibility of profit; existing fields can also continue to yield product if the correct technology is applied. According to the Subsea Oil & Gas Directory review of The Subsea Industry6, “The subsea oil and gas industry is changing… towards marginal field development [and] smaller tie backs to already developed fields...” To achieve an improved ratio of cost to output, energy businesses have been driven to seek ways in which the most value can be economically extracted from known reserves. Much of the headline making progress has been in the area of finding new deposits and reserves but there are plenty of known reserves that could add significantly to global

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energy resources if a way could be found to further and profitably exploit them. Productivity is the name of the game and that might mean extending the reach of production facilities to the more remote edges of a field; sometimes it will mean the simple life extension of an established field, using new technology to extract value from lower grade reserves and sometimes it will mean using the latest technology to economically exploit reserves previously deemed uneconomic or spent. To sustain success in such a context, operators need to have as much information as possible about their reserves as well as their expensive and environmentally exposed assets so that they can maintain a strong management fix on performance and condition as well as any specific matters that regulators might demand.

Information Unlocks Opportunities In ‘The value of smarter oil and gas fields’, IBM highlighted the importance of information7: “… industry leaders are turning to a variety of innovative, upstream petroleum technologies. But are these technologies alone enough to meet the full set of demands confronting today’s industry? Given the volume and detail of the data they can generate, shouldn’t they be viewed as resources themselves, capable of providing a wealth of information that could improve the value of oil and gas fields? And, if that’s the case, how could that information be more widely utilized? How could it enable all of the field’s business functions to be tied into a smoothly operating system–a smart field? How could that raise production levels, recovery rates and cost efficiencies? And would the benefits be enough to justify the investment..? … Major IT advances now make it not only possible but also potentially profitable to share information throughout the field to bring people, processes and petroleum technologies together in powerful new ways. In fact, recent research shows that well-planned investments in data integration

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AIM Solutions

Discover Monitor Protect can more than pay for themselves by increasing current production, raising recovery rates, and cutting capital and operating expenses.”

Extended Reach, Extended Life and Enhanced Recovery Extension of an offshore oil or gas field can work in two ways. The number of wells tied back to a platform can be increased to add to the facility’s capacity and/or the whole facility can continue working past its original design life. These two are not mutually exclusive inasmuch as where a platform is tied to resources that technology has made viable on the further reaches of a field, it might also be a means to justify extension of the platform’s operating life beyond original plan. There are several technologies and techniques that can make a previously unviable reserve viable: collectively this is referred to as enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The Rigzone article, ‘What is EOR and How Does it Work?’8 explained; “EOR entails changing the actual properties of the hydrocarbons... While water flooding and gas injection during the secondary recovery method are used to push the oil through the well, EOR applies steam or gas to change the makeup of the reservoir… There are three main types of EOR, including chemical flooding, gas injection and thermal recovery.” EOR can be used at any stage in the life of a field but, in the context of this article, we’ll stick with making less productive reserves viable and restoring depleted wells to viability. Either can lead to an extension of platform reach with tiebacks because for a less productive field, a whole new facility would negate any profit potential; so, extending the reach of current facilities will support viability. On the matter of extended life, Patrick O’Brian, Group

Director Strategic Business & Marketing at Wood Group Kenny in his December 2012 Oil & Gas UK Presentation ‘Contribution of Subsea Technology to UKCS [UK Continental Shelf] Exploitation – Now and in the Future’9 said that “many UKCS projects have the potential for life extension… Subsea technology is making a very sizeable contribution towards the further exploitation and elongation of the UKCS, and will grow in this contribution into the future…”

Engineering Data Management throughout the Asset Lifecycle

Monitoring Asset Condition and System Information A key management tool making extended life fields possible is monitoring. Modern monitoring employs the considerable processing power of today’s IT systems to ensure that operators not only have the most up-to-the-minute reports of production conditions, but that a range of conditions in the system can be monitored and the results be displayed in a user friendly manner for fast interpretation, while clear dashboards make adjustments to the system and well very easy to achieve. All of this relies heavily on the availability and accessibility of good quality record content and asset information. The challenge was summed up in the Journal of Petroleum Technology10, “More than half of the offshore oil and gas installations in the UK Sector of the North Sea have been operating for at least 20 years. Most assets are approaching or operating beyond their original design intent.” Equipment in these lifeextended fields will require increasingly stringent and detailed levels of inspection and maintenance to ensure their continuing operating efficiency and structural integrity and that will require excellent records with reliable and accessible content and asset information.

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A Need to Know Francis Slade, Staff Writer With so many complex and costly assets located in the oceans, owners and operators need to know what is there; its condition and when to maintain it

Given this level of inventory, it would be reckless to rely on memory or experience to dictate when inspections must be made. Rather, a good record system with relevant content and information about the assets will ensure that all maintenance routines are just that; routine and planned

Planned Maintenance is Effective Maintenance Finding, accessing and exploiting reserves of oil and gas beneath the ocean engages a great deal of hardware sited above the surface, in the water and on the seabed. It can vary from the sophistication of a christmas tree sited over a well head, to the deceptive simplicity of a pipeline; from the structures that support platforms and production facilities, to the platforms themselves. Plus, today there is the growing trend to site processing on the seabed. This diverse array of assets requires regular monitoring to ensure not only their economic operation but also their continuing to safely support the processes of the business and protect the environment from the risk of pollution. That is where information is necessary to guide and appropriately schedule operations. Structures such as floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) systems, for instance, have potential to be the sources of pollution should any part of the system fail. Monitoring all this entails inspections and testing, and inspection routines will need to cover a range of equipment and structures. Given this level of inventory, it would be reckless to rely on memory or experience to dictate when inspections must be made. Rather, a good record system with relevant content and information about the assets will ensure that all maintenance routines are just that; routine and planned rather than in response to events, failures and declines in effectiveness. Quoted by John McKenna in the September 2013 issue of Process Engineering11, ABB Consulting’s Philip Lawson confirmed of properly planned maintenance for North Sea oil and gas assets; “There is no question the region can still be profitable for many years to come, but maintenance programs must now be targeted very carefully in order to achieve those targets. There has been record investment in assets this year but it cannot continue at that rate if an acceptable ROI [return on investment] is to be achieved. Assets may be aging but many of them are capable of safely reaching the end of their

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design life [and beyond], particularly over the next two decades as activity in the North Sea slows down.” He added that maintenance needed to be applied “only to the right equipment and systems at the right time, prioritizing investment in areas that are most likely to fail”. Without good and usable documentation content, that kind of targeted, smart approach to maintenance would not be possible.

Safe and Clean It isn’t only productivity that drives a maintenance schedule. It is also critical to ensure safe operation, for the well-being of workers, for maintaining production with as little disruption as possible and to support high levels of corporate integrity as well as to demonstrate a proactive approach to the authorities. These days, in any industry, safety has to be a principal concern; in a sector like offshore energy, with significant potential to harm both the people who work in it, the immediate environment in which it operates and the wider locale, safety has to be the first operational concern. It is best achieved through assured mechanical and materials integrity which, in turn, requires adherence to a prescribed maintenance schedule and routine inspection and monitoring of the equipment’s condition to inform a program of fault rectification as well as routine maintenance. And, of course, to inform future programs and should, unfortunately, an incident occur, good records will provide all of the information needed to plan work or demonstrate good processes.

A Complex Content Challenge Nothing can detract from the fact that offshore energy operations are complex processes with complex inventories of equipment and structure. Add to that the range of conditions in which the product can be found and the changes in product condition throughout the production period, plus the challenging locations in which the processes are conducted, and it is easy to see why the more information that can

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These days, in any industry, safety has to be a principal concern; in a sector like offshore energy, with significant potential to harm both the people who work in it, the immediate environment in which it operates and the wider locale, safety has to be the first operational concern be delivered in accessible form to personnel in whatever conditions, the better for the process. On top of that, there are often several subcontractors or outsource service providers involved so that it is essential for the lead operator to know what they are doing and vice-versa. Perhaps the best authority on this is the UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE), whose Asset Integrity Program (Key Program 3) includes among its good practices a focus on12 ‘Reporting the status of the maintenance system effectiveness and SCE [safety critical element] integrity.’ “Senior management [must] ensure that the reports provided include the appropriate metrics to give a full picture of maintenance system status, e.g. data on not only corrective work in backlog, but the level of day to day breakdowns which impact on planned maintenance or data on pipework inspection programs and corrosion management status. This improves understanding of the system performance. Regular audits of integrity management systems including SCE

maintenance management will assist in ensuring that the reporting systems are effective.”

The Digital Approach To a greater or lesser degree, records have always been maintained but with the advent of modern levels of corporate accountability in both financial and citizenship terms, there is no longer room for the ‘lesser degree’ approach. Content has to be well ordered, use standardized references, be accurate and up-to-date, scalable and able to be applied in different contexts or updated without having to republish the whole document… and it has to be available on whatever platform is available to the user. Paper based records are no longer adequate to this task. Electronic documents, on the other hand, held in digital format can do all of these things and be available for those authorized to use them anywhere in the world at any time. In content- reliant industries such as offshore energy, digital content management ensures that everybody who needs to know can know.

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You Have to Know it and Need to Show it John Hancock, Editor Records ensure that knowledge and experience gained during an operation or process can be built into the future way the business runs and can be shown to any who need to know.

Monitoring frequency should be sufficient to provide representative data for the parameter being monitored. Monitoring should be conducted by trained individuals following monitoring and recordkeeping procedures…

Peter Dunwell and Francis Slade have given us an idea of the economic and business cases for good record keeping and why records are important in the essential task of maintenance. This article will consider record keeping and content management not so much in terms of the specific tasks and processes to which it can be applied but rather in terms of the operational life and life cycle of an offshore oil and gas production facility.

Information is Value Over-riding all of this is the value of data, information and content which was well explained in IBM’s paper, ‘The value of smarter oil and gas fields’13. “… recent research shows that wellplanned investments in data integration can more than pay for themselves by increasing current production, raising recovery rates, and cutting capital and operating expenses. Time-to-value can be surprisingly short, with paybacks large and rapid enough to sustain ongoing investment and even greater profitability… a growing number of producers are… fully exploiting the value of the data constantly being generated across today’s heavily instrumented oil and gas fields. Through broader consolidation and distribution of this data, they are developing advanced analytical systems and other capabilities to help transform data into actionable insights serving field management and operations.” The UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE) also identifies the organization and communication of data as revealing SCE (safety-critical element) related risks; communication of risks to all levels and supporting a heightened awareness of SCE issues (see Francis Slade’s article, above, for reference). Also, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank identifies record keeping as an important part in the environmental performance of offshore oil and gas14; “Environmental monitoring activities should be based on direct or indirect indicators of

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emissions, effluents, and resource use applicable to the particular project. Monitoring frequency should be sufficient to provide representative data for the parameter being monitored. Monitoring should be conducted by trained individuals following monitoring and recordkeeping procedures…”

Asset Management Offshore oil and gas is an expensive business with costs measured in hundreds of millions or, given time, billions of dollars. With poor asset management, waste can accumulate to significant levels taking resources away from more productive purposes. Already, in earlier articles above, writers have alluded to the complexity of an offshore installation at any phase of a field’s working life, let alone the complexity of the whole system taking product from well to user. This means that the inventory of materials, supplies, individual parts, subassemblies and whole assemblies needed to keep the system working is enormous, creating a record keeping and content management challenge all of its own. Oil & Gas UK15 suggests an asset register to include all permanently installed assets and components, temporary equipment, defined life repairs, and new assets and components arising from modifications. And, in the introductory notes for the 2013 Asset Integrity Summit16, it was noted that, “The impact of aging assets on maintenance, HSE and production is inarguable, the question is which strategies and solutions are the most effective and economical. Coupled with upcoming guidelines to encourage international standardization, oil and gas operators have never been under so much pressure to demonstrate best industry practices.”

State of the Assets The condition of assets can be affected by so many outside factors but principally, in

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what, if any, wider process changes were identified and implemented.

A History of Maintenance

this context, it will be usage (wear and tear), environmental factors (climate and the ocean), location and the product being lifted. Good quality documentation recording the conditions of all of these will greatly assist all aspects of process and maintenance planning. Equally, from the moment that structures and equipment leave the yard or factory, they start to deteriorate. That is quite acceptable within known safe limits, but records of the condition of structures and equipment will help flag up when remedial action or maintenance (planned or otherwise) needs to be scheduled. Oil & Gas UK (see above) also identifies the need for integrity risk assessments to determine, “the asset’s plant and equipment failure risks.” Having been undertaken, it all has to be recorded to be useful and to demonstrate, if need be, that proper procedures have been followed. But, of course, failures and breakdowns do occur and they also should be recorded… what caused them, what remedial action was taken and

Where maintenance programs are carried out, records will help to learn lessons from any discoveries (see above). And, as SAS points out17, “Equipment that isn’t properly maintained is prone to malfunction and breakdown – a huge safety risk and shutdown threat. And noncompliance with regulatory reporting requirements for equipment maintenance puts you at risk of losing your operating license.” It isn’t just doing it; it’s being able to show that you have done it. In fact, those ‘regulatory reporting requirements’ are important drivers in offshore oil and gas. “In the years since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the gulf of Mexico, policymakers have been very interested in developing performance indicators for the offshore oil and gas industry... The development of environment-specific indicators is similarly crucial.” This is from the Harvard Law School paper on ‘Suggested indicators of environmentally responsible performance of offshore oil and gas…’18 which indicates that oil and gas companies will need to keep considerably more records in the future if they are to demonstrate their corporate governance credentials.

Longer Life; End of Life Field life extension has already been covered in this paper so let’s conclude with the conclusion. Notwithstanding everything above, offshore facilities do eventually have to be decommissioned and, even at this late stage, records and content are required for the specific programs that authorities will demand for each asset being decommissioned. Records and their content are the bedrock of good practice in every aspect of offshore oil and gas.

Engineering Data Management throughout the Asset Lifecycle

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References: 1

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsea_%28technology%29

Infield Systems, ‘Subsea Oil and Gas Sector Set For 14.8% CAGR Growth To 2017’ http://www.infield.com/news/subsea-oil-gas-sector-growth-2017

Jason Waldie at the ‘Subsea Asia Conference’, Kuala Lumpur 2011 http://www.subseauk.com/documents/subsea%20asia%20-%20jason%20waldie.pdf

Oil & Gas UK http://www.oilandgasuk.co.uk/publications/Production/The_Offshore_Challenge.cfm

Offshore Technology ‘The Subsea Processing Promise’ http://www.offshore-technology.com/features/feature1412/

Subsea Oil & Gas Directory http://www.subsea.org/subsea.html

IBM, ‘The value of smarter oil and gas fields‘ www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/global/files/us__en_us__oil__che03002usen.pdf

Rigzone ‘What is EOR and How Does it Work?’ http://www.rigzone.com/training/insight.asp?insight_id=313&c_id=4

‘Contribution of Subsea Technology to UKCS [UK Continental Shelf] Exploitation – Now and in the Future’ http://www.oilandgasuk.co.uk/downloadabledocs/1394/2.%20Patrick%20O%27Brien,%20Wood%20Group%20Kenny.pdf

The Journal of Petroleum Technology http://www.mydigitalpublication.com/article/Offshore+Oil+and+Gas+Installation%E2%80%94Aging+and+Life+Extension/951953/0/article.html

Process Engineering http://processengineering.theengineer.co.uk/oil-and-gas/uk-oil-and-gas-investment-rate-unsustainable/1017040.article

HSE ‘Key Program 3, Asset Integrity Program’ http://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/kp3.pdf

IBM, ‘The value of smarter oil and gas fields‘ www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/global/files/us__en_us__oil__che03002usen.pdf

IFC http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/65f8ae00488558a380d4d26a6515bb18/Final%2B-%2BOffshore%2BOil%2Band%2BGas%2BDevelopment.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&id=1323153218959

Oil & Gas UK www.oilandgasuk.co.uk/cmsfiles/modules/publications/pdfs/HS073.pdf

2013 Asset Integrity Summit http://www.aimsummit.co.uk/

SAS http://www.sas.com/industry/oilgas/oil_gas_solution_brief3.pdf

Harvard Law School http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/environmentallawprogram/files/2014/01/Indicators-paper-FINAL_1-6-14.pdf

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