VOLUME 22, ISSUE 5

SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

A S S E T I N T E G R I T Y I N T E L L I G E N C E

REMOTE INTEGRITY MONITORING OF HIGH CRITICALITY EQUIPMENT IN REAL TIMEDR. JAKE DAVIES, Marketing Director at Permasense

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One simple way to reduce this risk is to rely less on mobilizing personnel and more on deploying technology to monitor assets remotely.

Some companies are already embracing this way of thinking. For example, BP’s Technology Outlook suggests that digital technol-ogies have great potential to reduce risk, optimize production, and contribute to more efficient operations. According to a recent poll at the Data-Driven Production Conference held this past June in Houston, 87%of respondents intend to accelerate their use of Remote Operation Centres.

Asset integrity is one area where this is becoming a reality. For example, permanently-mounted sensors attached to strategic points in the infrastructure can take continuous, robust measure-ments of equipment wall thickness to monitor for the effects of corrosion or erosion (Figure 1). Then, using wireless technology, they send the gathered data for analysis at a central, safe, conve-nient location, onshore or offshore.

REMOTE INTEGRITY MONITORING OF HIGH CRITICALITY EQUIPMENT IN REAL TIMEBY: DR. JAKE DAVIES, Marketing Director at Permasense

INTRODUCTIONImagine, you’re an oil and gas operator working in a harsh, remote, or politically unstable environment, and you suspect there’s a problem with one of your assets. You have two options. Option one: you send personnel into a potentially dangerous situ-ation to investigate. Option two: you don’t. Which do you choose? It’s not a trick question; there isn’t a catch.

It’s a decision faced by operators the world over every day, and if it seems like an obvious choice, it wasn’t always. In the past, manning assets either permanently or temporarily—high-risk region or not—was the only way to capture important inspection data or carry out essential maintenance. If you picked option two, you might have to go without, to the potential detriment of the operation.

But that’s no longer always the case. Remote monitoring sol-utions are making it possible to choose the second option with-out forgoing the essential data gathering that keeps assets safely operating—in many cases adding significant business value too.

RISKY BUSINESSOil and gas is an inherently risky industry. Even though health and safety standards are continuously improving, oil and gas operations still involve working with hazardous materials, often at elevated pressures and temperatures, and in remote and/or extreme environments.

The regions operations are expanding to aren’t getting any safer either. We’ve seen a sharp rise in piracy and militant attacks off the coast of Nigeria. In the first two months of 2016, there were 24 cases of “piracy and armed robbery at sea,” double the number of attacks in the closing two months of 2015. Normally stable Kazakhstan recently saw terrorist related shootings in Aktobe, which was also the site of the country’s first suicide bombing in 2011. That’s not even to mention the continued terror-ist threat across much of the Middle East and North Africa, or the growing piracy threat off the East Coast of Africa.

There are instances of good news, such as the recent truce between FARC and the Colombian government after 60 years of warfare, but overall, geopolitical risks to oil and gas operations don’t seem to be fading.

But it’s not just geopolitical risk that operators have to contend with. Today, companies operate in regions where the environ-ment itself poses significant challenges. Despite the threat of extreme cold or violent and unpredictable weather systems, new frontiers such as the remote Arctic or deep water Gulf of Mexico continue to tempt the bold and the adventurous.

REDUCING RISKPutting people in the field always adds a certain amount of risk.

Figure 1. Permanently installed wall thickness sensors, shown here on an FPSO, deliver continuous data to the desks of the onshore engineering team.

There is no need for guess work. At any given time, operators can gain immediate insight into exactly how their assets are coping with the demands placed upon them by ever-changing operating

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conditions; all from the comfort of their desks, without mobiliz-ing technicians into the field.

Furthermore, data quality is exceptional, since sensors are per-manently installed and the frequency of measurement allows operators to see the changes occurring in real-time at the desired data capture rates. Suddenly, inspectors and other engineers can remotely see how infrastructure responds to all the unpredictable variables at work within the asset’s environment. Figure 2 shows data collected over a 30 year period using manual UT inspection and Figure 3 shows data collected using a permanently mounted UT sensor. The difference in quality and frequency of data is striking. Manual UT exhibiting around 40 mils of variation, sensors showing <1 mil of measurement variation, means that small corrosion or erosion events can be detected and acted upon

within days. Correlating small thickness measurement changes with changing operating conditions, applicable IOW (integrity operating windows) parameters for example, can provide valu-able insight and verification for the impact of changing operating conditions on wall loss.

But that’s not all. Once installed, sensors are virtually mainte-nance free, with battery lives of up to nine years. Using either existing IT infrastructure or dedicated satellite connections, they continually feed data back to a remote operating center. This means fewer teams deployed to high risk regions. When issues are identified, and follow-up is deemed necessary, NDE or main-tenance teams have a highly-focused remit so that any follow-up can be executed in-field in a timely manner.

Figure 2. Manual UT measurements from a single TML over 30-year period (courtesy of Chevron).

Figure 3. Online UT measurements of a quality and frequency to enable precision of measurement of metal loss to microns (<1 mil).

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Figure 4. Fixed non-intrusive EMAT sensor measures wall thickness using conventional ultrasonic principles without requirement to remove external corrosion protective coating

LESS RISK, BETTER BUSINESSFor specific remote solutions, such as asset integrity monitoring systems, there can be numerous benefits. Data accuracy, con-tinuous monitoring, and real-time transmission provide huge volumes of information, which supports real-time operational decision making, as well as comparative and predictive analytics capabilities for anticipating problems in advance. Another benefit is seeing and understanding the latent impact of changing pro-cess conditions on wall loss.

These kinds of tools lead to improved asset uptime and increased profitability. In a low oil price environment, high-quality solu-tions make a tangible difference to operator margins.

The precipitous fall in oil prices has turned the spotlight on tech-nologies that can help lower costs, reduce capital expenditure, and improve operational efficiency. And in addition to the human benefits, reduced risk can sometimes go hand in hand with reduced cost.

Instead of sending highly skilled inspection teams into high-risk regions, management can focus their attention on data analy-sis to better manage equipment reliability. Better utilization of

the skilled inspection workforce is another powerful benefit of remote monitoring solutions. There are obvious immediate savings from reducing or eliminating site visits: helicopter and transport charter, security costs, overtime pay. There are some less obvious benefits too, such as reduced strain on highly sought after offshore bed space.

DESIGN OF MONITORING SYSTEMS Some modern integrity monitoring systems designed specifi-cally for the rigors of oil and gas operations use low power EMAT (Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Transducer) technology to measure metal thickness through external corrosion protection coatings. EMAT uses standard ultrasonic principles to take the wall thick-ness measurements (Figure 4), are completely non-intrusive and there is no need to remove the external coating at the measure-ment locations. Moreover, the strong electromagnetic pulse elim-inates the need for a liquid couplant.

In addition, the sensors may be attached in various ways includ-ing magnetically or mechanically. Wireless data retrieval means that there is no need for complex and expensive cabling.

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HARD CHOICES FOR LONG-TERM SURVIVAL?The energy sector has a long tradition of embracing innovation in times of crisis to stay safe, relevant, and profitable. By mod-ifying work practices and adopting smart integrity monitoring technologies, numerous risks that operators face in these regions can be greatly reduced. Ultimately, the enhanced quality of data delivered by continuous integrity monitoring systems can lead to better use of skilled inspection resources and better operational decision making. This means safer people and a more profitable business. n

For more information on this subject or the author, please email us at inquiries@inspectioneering.com.

REFERENCES

1. November 2015, “BP Technology Outlook,” http://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/pdf/technology/bp-technology-outlook.pdf, pp. 12.

Figure 5. Wireless wall thickness monitoring sensors deployed on piping and vessels on Gulf of Mexico production platform, continuously delivering data to an onshore engineering team.

Figure 6. An array of wireless UT sensors installed on a water separation facility of an onshore production field.

CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR

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DR. JAKE DAVIES Dr. Jake Davies led the operational testing of the Permasense system at all of BP’s refineries

from the outset, and subsequently Permasense’s commercial deployment of the system

at refineries and upstream assets across the world. He combines a deep understanding of

ultrasonic physics with a track record of satisfying the needs of the diverse teams within

an Oil and Gas environment that play a role in specifying, installing and operating monitoring

systems. Jake holds a PhD from Imperial College London, an MEng from Oxford University,

and an MBA from The Open University.