Integrity Management: A Basic Pilar of Efficiency Improvement Program for Offshore Production Unit

Abstract

Abstract The competitive scenario in the oil and gas industry nowadays requires an integrated and optimized management of resources to meet the needs of doing more, better, faster, with lower cost, ensuring operational safety and value generation for the business. Mostly, efficiency maximization projects focus their actions on production, although we can observe that many bad actors are related to unexpected events such as accidents, leaks, material failures, etc. Therefore, to deal with efficiency maximization we must include safety, integrity, and legal compliance issues. The construction of a sustainable efficiency project able to meet the requirements of society and to address all stated issues, should promote a cultural change, based on an active leadership enhanced by the use of technology. In this sense, acting in the layer of "integrity management" is a fundamental pillar in maximizing efficiency and its process should promote the execution of actions in order to strive for the continuous evolution of management system. Integrity management should go through all phases of the production unit´s life cycle, considering both the selection of materials and technologies - that must deal with all the changes that occurs in the operational conditions; as well as the effort required for its preservation/conservation, inspection and maintenance - which must be consistent with the manhour restrictions inherent to the offshore condition and with the issues related to maintenance service clearance for execution during the operational phase. During this phase it is necessary to establish preventive mechanisms for the evaluation and detection of degradations, considering both structural and functional aspects, which may occur due to operational and environmental process conditions to which offshore production facilities are exposed. In this context, quantification in terms of reliability for residual useful life is a tool that help the decision-making process, allowing companies to take the best actions considering the business market, as well as the current and future condition of the industrial plant. This requires, among others, a specialized technical staff, a process with well-defined steps and records, and the establishment of a set of indicators that allows to demonstrate the actual situation of the installation and the perspective of evolution of its condition. In order to encompass all the topics above, the EF100 efficiency improvement program was structured, consisting of 18 initiatives that have been contributed to consolidate a culture of integrity and reliability as a tool for generating business value. This article aims to explore the main actions defined for the improvement of the integrity management of offshore units.