LIFETIME EXTENSION OF AGEING FIXED OFFSHORE PLATFORMS AND SUBSEA ASSETS

AIM FORUM KUALA LUMPUR 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

ABSTRACT
3rd party Life Extension Certification :

The approach to integrity by key O&G players is changing, actions being more directed towards predictive processes than corrective actions. In the same period the identification of critical elements became a commonly admitted pre-requisite to any integrity strategy. The critical steps may be summarized as follows : What to measure where how when ? Do the sets of measurement allow to totally trace the life . Critical steps towards life extension .

Exploring offshore structures and other critical subsea systems like flexibles risers, path to 3rd party Life Extension Certification

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

CONTENT 1 Context / BV approach 2 Platform inventory / Site conditions 3 Structural assessment / Strength & fatigue analyses 4 Inspections program / Lifetime extension 5 Conclusions / current developments: SIM, etc.

CONTEXT / BV APPROACH
The situation:

Offshore Fixed platforms are more intensively loaded than before, and may present local overstressing or damage. Oldest installations have reached their original design lifetime and therefore require life extension assessment.

The experience of the Certification Authority:

BUREAU VERITAS certification activities in the Southern North Sea: 1974: First certification

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

1994: First recertification First issue of our Procedure GEP n305 - Fixed Offshore Installations Condition Appraisal of Ageing Structures
Service life
KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

lifetime extension
4

CONTEXT / BV APPROACH
The objectives:

Such re-appraisal has to give an up to date and "State of the Art picture of the platform data and strength, with respect to data assumed and to methods used initially, at the time of building. Then this picture is used to assess if the existing platform is still fit-for-purpose, and to decide the in service inspections for the forthcoming period.

Our services for structures:

BUREAU VERITAS scheme of RECERTIFICATION for LIFETIME EXTENSION includes four phases:

Phase 1 SCREENING:
- Platform inventory - Site conditions

Phase 2 RE-ANALYSIS:
- In-place / Pushover - Fatigue

Phase 3 SURVEY PROGRAM

Phase 4 CONCLUSIONS

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

Platform inventory

Phase 1 SCREENING:
- Platform inventory - Site conditions

The inventory mainly includes the data collection from: initial building documents (as-built) with all follow-up reports, periodical inspection reports,
1.

Platform arrangement reassessment from initial (as-built) and follow-up reports: Topside arrangements (initial design data and fabrication records, historical record of revamping, and present situation weight assessment), Appurtenance arrangements (conductors, risers, boat landing, and fenders).

2.

Platform conditions reassessment from inspection reports: Damage, accident, with subsequent repairs, Corrosion, anodes maintenance Records of marine growth thickness & cleaning operations, scour & debris observations.

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

SITE CONDITIONS

Phase 1 SCREENING:
- Platform inventory - Site conditions

Review of initial reports for environmental & soil conditions with if possible more recent data: measurement of water depth (the relative deck level elevation), measurement reassessment of wave and other environmental data (wind, etc.), soil investigation at a later built adjacent platform.
1.

Deck clearance reassessment: Possible air gap reduction (or platform subsidence) and wave-in-deck risk.

2.

Metocean loads reassessment: to improve the accuracy of the 20-year old description of meteocean conditions

3.

Soil resistance reassessment from soil investigations: more recent techniques of investigations and analyses may be available.

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

EXAMPLE OF RECERTIFICATION

Phase 1 SCREENING:
- Platform inventory - Site conditions

Wellhead platform installed in the 80s (Southern sector of North Sea)

Initially designed for survival waves: Hmax =17 m (air gap of 1.5 m)

2005 : Recertification for lifetime extension with the addition of a new topsides module (weight increase of 20%): Climate worsening: the design wave becomes Hmax =19 m Measurements concluded that deck elevations are 0.75 m below design values. No damage recorded during in-service inspection.

As the air-gap became negative, BUREAU VERITAS recommended: Relocation of all equipments necessary for the platform process integrity. Reinforcement of secondary equipments support which have not been relocated. Re-analysis of the new topside arrangements and environmental conditions (i.e. to check the piles compression due to weight and wave increases)
KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

DAMAGES EXAMPLES

Phase 1 SCREENING:
- Platform inventory - Site conditions

Dented members: Boat impact / dropped objects (The size of local indentation with possible member misalignment needs to be measured. Both joints of the impacted brace are to be inspected)

Fatigue Cracks: Unexpected cracks generally in the first horizontal level below sea level. (local wave effect not properly modelled in fatigue calculation) No crack in area of low fatigue life estimation due to the conservatism of analysis procedure (joint flexibility, number of cycles estimation, etc.)

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

LOSS OF INTEGRITY CAUSES

Jacket failures modes:

Load increase:
Design Environment worsening:

Phase 1 SCREENING:
- Platform inventory - Site conditions

- underestimation of design waves - unexpected marine growth - hurricane, tsunami, freak wave, etc. Soil: variation of soil design capacity Topsides loads increase / Centre of gravity shift (revamping) Addition of conductors or risers

Operation Accident

Ship impact / Dropped objects

Strength reduction:
Design According to out of date codes Water level variation (Air-gap reduction / subsidence) Insufficient inspections / maintenance Lack of repairs Corrosion Scour Fatigue cracks
KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

Operation

Degradation

10

THE PRINCIPLES

Phase 2 RE-ANALYSIS:
- In-place / Pushover - Fatigue

The re-analysis of the platform should be carried out: to give an up-to-date picture of platform strength, to confirm the suitability of structures for an extended lifetime, In-place structural strength reassessment: Conventional in-place analysis (components checks: members, joints & foundations) may be complemented by more advanced methods (i.e. push-over analysis).

Jacket fatigue strength reassessment: Fatigue re-analysis should be carried out in accordance with the latest State of the Art and when relevant, "past" and "future" conditions should be considered separately.

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

11

IN-PLACE STRENGTH

Phase 2 RE-ANALYSIS:
- In-place / Pushover - Fatigue

Traditionally, the strength is expressed the maximum of all unity checks (UCs in case of components check), but it can be also measured by the reserve strength ratios (RSRs in case of system check)
RECERTIFICATION BASED ON CONVENTIONAL ANALYSES RECERTIFICATION BASED ON PUSHOVER ANALYSES

CONVENTIONAL CHECKS (storm)

MEMBERS CHECK

CRITERIA FOR SAFETY FACTOR EVALUATION OF EACH COMPONENT YIELD CRITERION BUCKLING CRITERION

FAILURE MODES TO BE ACCOUNTED FOR JACKET PUSHOVER ANALYSIS PLASTIFICATION GLOBAL & LOCAL STABILITY JOINT STRENGTH FOUNDATION STRENGTH

PUSHOVER

CONNECTIONS CHECK
PUNCHING CRITERION

FOUNDATIONS CHECK
FOUNDATION CRITERION

Phase 1 SCREENING:
- Platform inventory - Site conditions

Phase 2
In-Place analysis

RE-ANALYSIS:
Fatigue analysis

Pushover analysis KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

Higher analysis level

12

FATIGUE STRENGTH

Phase 2 RE-ANALYSIS:
- In-place / Pushover - Fatigue

The fatigue re-analysis based on the extended lifetime should be carried out in accordance with the latest state of the art for all tubular joints:

Updated wave distribution if new measurements are available For Hot-spot Stress Approach: A more refined assessment of local stresses using local joint flexibility (LJF) or FE meshes when parametric stress concentration factor (SCF) are no longer applicable. Fatigue loads that describes all phases (i.e. dynamical response may changed consequently to topsides weight increase)

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

13

DIFFICULT ASSESSMENTS

Phase 2 RE-ANALYSIS:
- In-place / Pushover - Fatigue

In case of pushover for strength assessment: The RSR values are generally greater than 2.0 due to load redistribution. A criterion between 2.0 and 1.5 (safety factor of pile capacity for storm conditions) is still under discussion in offshore industry, and may be specified by the operator or regulatory authority.

Fatigue in splash zone and in upper level in water: The correlation between Hot-Spot Fatigue lifetime calculation and joints inspections (unexpected cracks or absence of cracks) is not always satisfactory.

Assessment with damage The member strength reduction can be assessed by simple equations for extreme conditions, but regarding loads redistribution, and its consequence on fatigue lifetime estimation needs to be improved.

Approximate section resistance

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

14

SPECIAL SURVEY

Phase 3 SURVEY PROGRAM

A special survey inspection should be performed after the re-analysis, in order to complete the evaluation of platform conditions, and to correlate this actual condition with the finding of re-analysis.
1.

Inspection of overall conditions of the platform (annual inspections): GVI: General Visual Inspections to check the presence and condition of members Scour surveys Marine growth measurements in order to plan platform cleaning inspections of anodes

2.

Structural inspections of the damaged areas: Dents, straightness, flooded members, thickness/corrosion, etc.

3.

Specific inspections of appurtenances: Potential readings at several locations Riser attachments (bolt clamp check)

4.

Critical joints inspections

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

15

CRITICAL JOINTS
The underwater inspection strategy is based on: previous inspection results known damage re-analysis results

Phase 3 SURVEY PROGRAM

BUREAU VERITAS recommends to select for the inspection plan:

1.

Joints with earlier cracks or other recorded anomalies (boat impact for example) Joints not covered by earlier inspections Joints found critical by re-analysis low fatigue life (< twice the extended lifetime) High stressed areas For program definition BUREAU VERITAS is developing a Risk Based approach for underwater inspections. It integrates the likelihood of failure, the evolution of marine growth, and the member failure consequence, etc.

2.

3.

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

16

INSPECTION & SIM

Objective: Providing a qualitative or quantitative
risk based inspections of joints for the lifetime extension.

Phase 3 SURVEY PROGRAM

Levels of inspection strategy

Conventional Inspections Plan
1 Joints with earlier cracks 2 Joints not in earlier inspections plan 3 Joints found critical by re-analysis

CoF

SIM Risk Assessment

based on weighting factors which represent a criticality ranking of joints LoF

Structural Integrity Management (SIM)

Probabilistic

CRIT = f ( LoF, CoF)

where: LoF = Likelihood of Failure CoF = Consequence of Failure

High Criticality Medium Criticality Low Criticality Phase 1 SCREENING:

Platform Inventory Site conditions

RBI

Reliability
Research works

Phase 2 RE-ANALYSIS:
In-Place analysis Fatigue analysis

Phase 3 SURVEY PROGRAMME: STRATEGY PROGRAM

Pushover analysis KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

17

UPDATING PHASE

Phase 3 SURVEY PROGRAM

The in-service inspections with the resulting data update is a key step of SIM mainly based on a continuous (or at regular interval) process of the fitness-for-purpose control.

DATA UPDATE
Phase 1 SCREENING:
- Platform inventory - Site conditions

Phase 2 RE-ANALYSIS:
- In-place / Pushover - Fatigue

Phase 3 SURVEY PROGRAM

- Strategy - Program

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

18

DECISION PHASE

Phase 4 CONCLUSIONS

The conclusion for the lifetime extension includes:

1.

Platform mitigations: overall load reduction, etc. Repair or reinforcement work, as considered in the final run of re-analysis Maintenance & inspections: marine growth cleaning, joints inspections, etc.

2.

3.

TARGET: recertification for 5-years extension.

Phase 1 SCREENING:
- Platform inventory - Site conditions

Phase 2 RE-ANALYSIS:
- In-place / Pushover - Fatigue

Phase 3 SURVEY PROGRAM:

- Strategy - Program

Phase 4 CONCLUSIONS

Target 5-years possibly renewable lifetime extension confirmed by a Certificate of Fitness with the approval of the Inspection Program
KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

19

FROM ONSHORE TO DEEPWATER

Deep Sea Facilities Pipelines, risers & subsea Equipment

Offshore Facilities Pipelines & risers Fixed Platform structure Topsides equipments

Onshore Facilities Onshore pipework & pipelines Refinery LNG Terminal

Ageing and lifetime extension : a challenge for O&G industry How to manage existing ageing assets and extend their life beyond their initial intended design-life
KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

20

ASSET LIFE CYCLE APPLIES

1.1 Data collection

General Design Data As built documentation Historic of inspection Structural Analysis with FE model

.jcm file

1.2 SIM evaluation

SIM Engine

Risk Matrix

Inspection frequency Inspection scope

2.2 Inspection results assessment

CAMPAIG N

2.1 Inspection planning

SMR & anomalies Management of change

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

21

WHAT DEEPWATER ASSETS ?

ISO 13628 API 17N, 17B, 17J, 17E

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

22

INTEGRITY
Data Evaluation Strategy Program

Integrity = Resistance vs Loads balance, with enough margin on R side Loads Resistance
Design / Initial
Grade Thickness Allowances

Fluid loads
Pressure Temperature Density Sand content Corrosivity

Environment loads
Wind Wave Current Sea bottom interaction Design Conservatism ?

Deterioration versus time

But what ? Where ?

Inspection / Monitoring
KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

23

CONFIGURATION ANALYSIS (FORCES, MOMENTS)

Data Evaluatio n Strategy Program

Configuration analysis & other specialised Software : Hot spot Forces, Moments Soil interaction and Buckling sensitive spots

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

24

STRESS ANALYSIS (MAX STRESS, FATIGUE)

Refined stress / fatigue analysis for complex structures
Data Evaluatio n Strategy Program

Defect assessment / FFS analysis

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

25

LIFE EXTENSION
Margins for Life extension are created through :

Assessment of possible design conservatism (fluid or environmental loads) Controlled safety margins reduction beyond design life Use of inspection/monitoring tools/methods with increased reliability Reduction of uncertainties, which reduces probabilities of failure Use of efficient integrity management system

KUALA LUMPUR AIM FORUM 17-18th SEPTEMBER 2013

26