Guidelines for life extension process management in oil and gas facilities
Facilities life extension has caught the attention among the capital-intensive industries, like oil and gas. By extending the life cycle of the industrial assets, a wide range of benefits is obtained, comparing with other life ending management strategies. This article first contextualizes the imple...
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| Published in: | Journal of loss prevention in the process industries Vol. 68; p. 104290 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier Ltd
01-11-2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Facilities life extension has caught the attention among the capital-intensive industries, like oil and gas. By extending the life cycle of the industrial assets, a wide range of benefits is obtained, comparing with other life ending management strategies. This article first contextualizes the implementation of the life extension concept in the oil and gas industry, showing global data about life extension. Despite the importance of the ageing process, due to its great economic impact and the risk it poses to the production sector, regulatory entities, even in countries more advanced in that sector or that have already experienced the extension process, developed only superficial material about the topic without defining a structured methodology for the assessment of the possibility of useful life extension. The available references do not allow a comprehensive analysis of that possibility, which highlights the importance the methodology proposed. Thus, this article proposes a guideline for the life extension process management, strengthening a framework containing the main evaluation stages, aiming to facilitate the analysis of issues related to ageing and to support the decision-making process. Lastly, real case studies regarding current life extension processes submitted to the Brazilian regulatory body were evaluated against the proposed framework stages, evidencing their lack of necessary details to support the decision-making. Upon the realization that the real cases identified do not allow for the assessment of the contribution and adequacy of the proposed framework in its entirety, the same was also applied to a hypothetical case. The latter was developed based on facts reported by a major operator in Brazil. The result was the determination that the use of the proposed methodology transformed the assessment of the possibility of life extension into a systematic and transparent process, leading to easier and better-founded decision-making procedures, and improving the management of the asset during its extended life.
•Many offshore facilities in the world are reaching their designed life span.•Life extension can bring economic advantages but also catastrophic accidents.•The available literature addresses singly only specific aspects of the problem.•Regulatory bodies have only superficial material as reference to the operators.•This paper proposes a comprehensive methodology for evaluating the life extension. |
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| ISSN: | 0950-4230 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jlp.2020.104290 |