Measurement should be integral to materials planning strategy
Dr. Will Medd, National Physical Laboratory
Most people in the oil industry know that accurate measurement can contribute to successful flow assurance and corporate social responsibility compliance. What isn’t so widely known is the extent of its impact on the bottom line.
Measurement expertise is often brought in as part of a trouble-shooting exercise mid- project, but companies across the industry could save millions of dollars by consulting during the planning phase or when writing tenders.
A good example of this is what I call “over-engineering.” Most structures in the oil and gas industry have a safety margin of five to 10 factored into their build. Compare that with other safety-critical industries such as aerospace and nuclear where a margin of three is acceptable on most items.
Over-engineering arises mainly from the delegation of risk and long supply chains in the oil and gas industry. Designers and subcontractor manufacturers all add their own safety margins on top – leading to overcompensation and added cost.
Take pipeline insulation, for example. One company in this field told the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) that current uncertainty levels in the measurement of thermal conductivity expose them to around $4 million of risk each year. If accurate measurement permeated the industry from the top down, installation costs could come down significantly. The issue is coming into sharper focus with the spread of deepwater, remote fields, and smaller-bore pipelines.
At NPL we have a £300,000 ($436,681) grant from the UK government’s Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills to design and build a new type of ‘guarded hot-plate.’ This is considered the most accurate technique for measuring the efficiency of insulation applied on pipelines. By accurately measuring the material’s thermal conductivity, we can determine the necessary thickness of insulation in a given environment.
Another area where accurate measurement is crucial is corrosion. Great progress has been made in controlling general corrosion through coating technology and inhibition, but localized attack and environment-assisted cracking remain challenges.
Corrosion has been identified as the most common “in-service” cause of failure of pipelines and the potential costs of loss of control of corrosion are enormous. Due to the aggressive operating environments upstream, materials are often being pushed to their limits.
NPL has open water and extreme pressure testing facilities that can simulate real life situations. And as well as more traditional corrosion testing, we now have an “under deposit” corrosion test that is being developed into an in-situ device for subsea use. We’re working with major industry players to provide a more scientific framework for evaluating the risks of corrosion and the effectiveness of chemical inhibition. We also have an H2S corrosion and erosion testing laboratory to assess and recommend specialist materials for sour and highly erosive conditions in depleted wells.
So it’s not just a case of cutting maintenance costs by predicting the lifetime of these materials. We should in time be able to give the confidence and quantifiable measurements required to bring down insurance premiums by working with technical experts and others.
These are just two areas where measurement is vital to industry success and profitability. With these, and many other cases, it is important that such factors be considered in the early phase of any project.
The holy grail of increased confidence in the performance of pipelines, structures, and materials at the same time as cutting costs is definitely achievable.
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