Pete Nutty, Head of inspection at Maersk Qatar, on how Credo helped win praise from independent auditors: -
"Corrosion control management and inspection groups, which are responsible for maintaining asset integrity of process equipment, can easily and quickly gather enormous amounts of data. As the equipment becomes older and uses up its remaining life, the ability to quickly retrieve historical inspection records for comparison with current findings is important; in fact, the information becomes essential. Inspection data is used for a number of different reasons; trend analysis, tracking changes to remaining life; updating inspection plans and adjusting frequencies; providing data for RBI reviews, and of course accurate reporting amongst a host of other things. The choice of systems to make this happen quickly and efficiently is, therefore, equally important as the data itself.
For example, take an oil field producing 220,000-bpd of crude oil and up to 200-MMSCF/day of gas where the gas is compressed for export at four out of six operating platforms. There is also the capacity to inject 450,000-bpd of seawater to maintain reservoir pressure and assist production. Anybody associated with asset integrity of such a complex operation knows only too well the statistics involved.
To add to the problem, the medium API crude oils are high in acid gases, H2S and CO2; water cuts are high and the produced waters are extremely saline; corrosive seawater used for injection is deaerated and chemically treated to achieve < 5-ppb oxygen; gas compression operates at 125-bar, is loaded with acid gas and tells its own story. With over 8,000 pipelines; many are potentially corrosive, and 500 items of equipment; mostly pressure vessels, it takes something very special to keep tabs on, what’s going on.
In this particular case, Credo was commissioned in 2001 to take care of the routine inspection activities; USTM monitoring, data storage and retrieval, and scheduling, etc. This was only the tip of the iceberg for Credo but considered perfect at the time. However, as the field matured and the corrosivity increased, so did the need for faster and more accurate information; things happen fast in potentially corrosive high-pressure gas streams. To cope with this demand, the functionality of Credo was put to the test and it was no surprise to those familiar with Credo that the software easily kept pace with, what’s going on.
Using both the Credo reporting function and the Dynamic Document manager tool, data such as; anomalies; inspection results; trend analysis; and look-ahead inspection schedule reports are quickly and accurately compiled. Adjustments are then made to the inspection programme; chemicals treatment programmes; and provide for early indication for timely replacement and / or better materials selection as required. In summary, the field operations personnel are accurately informed and able to respond quickly to the changing environment that constantly threatens asset integrity.
Today, at this particular location, Credo is used almost to its full capabilities. The hand held data logger function is used to e-mail inspection schedules. Results are collated and returned same-day by the technicians offshore thus minimising the needless task of manually reporting and data inputting. In addition, the Credo Logic Modeller is now used to assess corrosion risk, which has the added benefit of graphically showing an auditable process of the basis for risk-based assessments. A commitment to achieve and maintain a world-class inspection management system came a step closer this year following an audit where it was noted that, with the effective use of Credo in particular, the inspection group was rated highly compared to other comparable facilities around the world."
Pete Nutty – Head of the Chemicals, Corrosion and Inspection Group, Maersk Oil Qatar
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