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"The
goal [of RBI and asset integrity management] is to use
leading technology and historical experience to guide
us in the decisions that are made for the good of the
installation, the environment, the owners, the operators
and the local communities."
--Henrique
Paula
Regional Vice President,
South America,
ABS Group Inc.
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isk-based
inspection (RBI), long a source of theoretical interest
to the offshore |
industry,
is the key element of a new first-of-its-kind program being
developed by ABS Group
Inc., for the Petrobras 35 FPSO, operating in the Campos
Basin offshore Brasil. The program, when developed and implemented,
will significantly reduce lifecycle maintenance and the potential
for accidents by pinpointing areas of higher concern and focusing
additional inspection and maintenance efforts on them. Before
now, risk-based inspections typically have been focused on individual
components of an offshore structure. This project will provide
the entire offshore structure with a single comprehensive RBI
program.
"The industry
has shown a lot of interest in developing risk-based inspection,
largely due to the rewards it can offer in terms of significantly
increased safety and reduced maintenance and lifecycle costs,"
said Henrique Paula, Regional Vice President, South America,
ABS Group Inc.
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"When Petrobras
approached us about the P-35, we saw an ideal opportunity to
develop a program that fully integrates risk with traditional methods
of inspection, using historical experience, probabilistic methodologies,
information technology and the greatest asset of all, an in-country
staff of ABS Group and Petrobras engineers well-trained and versed
in risk-based inspection."
While RBI training
will kick off soon for four ABS Group Brasil-based engineers and
thirty Petrobras inspection personnel, ABS Group has already begun
its initial phases for this project: a qualitative and quantitative
review of P-35 systems, looking at the probability of equipment
failure and the consequences of failure. The goal of this review
is to reduce the likelihood of an incident to once every one thousand
years.
By October 2001,
ABS Group will implement a five-year maintenance program for the
P-35 based on the risk assessments conducted in the project's
initial phases. This puts the time between the contract award for
the RBI and fully implemented program at under twelve months. Using
the RBI program, inspectors can calibrate surveys to traditional
areas of inspection as well as areas that have been identified as
requiring special attention. The expected result is a safer, more
efficiently run installation.
According to
Paula, "Using risk for inspection and maintenance is an integral
part of an overall asset integrity management program that, ideally,
begins during design and continues throughout construction, safety
compliance, commissioning and even into the decommissioning phase.
The goal is to use both leading technology and historical experience
to guide us in the decisions that are made for the good of the installation,
the environment, the owners, the operators and the local communities."
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