This oil and gas producer acquires mid-life assets from O&G companies in central Africa while focusing on streamlining operations by increasing efficiencies. Currently, they are concentrating on Gabon with four operating sites and shares in a few other fields operated by another E&P company. The total production from those sites is around 45.000 Barrels/Day.
The client was looking to reduce maintenance costs and inspection times while implementing a Risk Based Inspection (RBI) methodology. MaxGrip assisted with RBI (re)-assessment of 1300 Floc’s, including pipelines, vessels, heat exchangers, and PSV’s, across four separate plants while reducing inspection man-hours by safely lengthening inspection intervals. By increasing future inspection intervals and reducing downtime through risk mitigation, the client saved thousands in inspection and maintenance man-hours. For those assets that risk could not be mitigated further, an on-site critical spare was identified; limiting the operational downtime when technical failure would inevitably occur.
Case study – highlights
The client’s challenge was to reduce costs while managing risks by moving from fixed interval to risk based interval inspections. The objectives of the project were to limit costs by increasing inspection intervals, maintain and inspect assets without jeopardizing safety or production. In addition, there was a need for installing a more progressive risk based inspection methodology for aging plant assets.
Approach
RBI (re)-assessment of 1300 equipment within four separate plants. The process was based on the API581 standard, with a client-developed RBI tool, which was altered by MaxGrip for practical project purposes. The inspection regime needed to be optimized by reducing both plant risks as well as the asset downtime window required for inspection. MaxGrip was to facilitate the RBI sessions with the plant inspection team and help validate and optimize the proposed procedure and processes.
Results
MaxGrip reduced man-hours for inspection and maintenance from 81.000 hours to 18.000 hours – calculated over 12 years. The estimated cost reduction was $848K per year on man-hours alone for the upcoming 12 years. Potential financial benefits are estimated to be higher, as the $850k savings per year only takes into account planned downtime, and not cost savings gained by reducing unplanned downtime through effective risk mitigation because of RBI. According to the client: “The project was fast paced and was handled very well by the MaxGrip personnel. Reporting to us was well presented and on time. The skills and expertise of the MaxGrip consultants were suitable to the project. They kept the pressure on delivery, making sure the project was completed on time.”
The output of the workshops enabled the client to stretch the inspection interval for 75% of the equipment (>900 FLOC’s), sometimes even with 3 times the current fixed interval, based on solid inspection data and/or a tangible risk-based approach. The items for which risk could not be mitigated further, an on-site critical spare was identified hence limiting the operational downtime when technical failure would inevitably occur.
MaxGrip also developed a RBI dashboard per production facility with 6 KPIs to make the result visible in one clear overview. This dashboard shows the current risks – allowing the client to focus on mitigating risks and extend inspection intervals even further.
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