New app makes vessel sharing plain sailing

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Members of the Aberdeen Marine Logistics Alliance (AMLA) now have instant access to vessel sharing opportunities thanks to a new app from the group’s facilitator, Peterson.

The app, developed by technology specialist Streamba, gives AMLA members access to available sailings up to a week ahead, alongside real time information on estimated cost and CO2 savings.  The system uses route visualisation software to help users plan voyages more efficiently.

Users can upload availability on their own vessels to ensure any additional capacity on voyages around the North Sea is made available on the market. With an established agreement covering the contractual and commercial terms of AMLA shares, once a suitable share is identified arrangements can be finalised within an hour.

Chris Coull, regional director at Peterson said: “This app is our latest step in applying data driven technology to facilitate sharing in the North Sea.  Our approach of building software from the bottom up helps us deliver solutions developed from a user perspective and we engaged with AMLA members throughout the development and testing stage.

“With AMLA it’s all about facilitating ad hoc shipping requirements quickly and effectively.  Input and feedback from our members told us that instant access to real time sailings and capacity was fundamental.  This app puts the members in control, giving them full visibility of options and costs from which to make a choice and significantly shortening the time from request to finalisation.”

For further information on the AMLA, please visit www.amla.uk

BP- Integrated SIMOPS tool improves understanding of risks

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Impact

The use of a visual reference for each activity taking place improved the team’s understanding of potential risks and hazards. It also provided a clear identification of the limits of each work scope within the work area, as well as detailed information by clicking on the activity (colour coded by function).

Description of Best Practice

BP and partners are currently investing at significant levels in the ETAP life extension project (ELXP) to secure the future of the field until 2030 and beyond. The safe and effective management of simultaneous operations (SIMOPS) between the ELXP project and the ETAP asset was a critical part of project delivery. To assist with this, the team introduced a new software system called ‘Blue-Beam™’ which allowed the project to introduce multi-layer PDFs showing work activities by function. They also utilised ‘Return to Scene’ (R2S) technology – a virtual ‘Google-style street view’ survey of the plant – which allowed functions to survey and tag sections of the asset that were planned to be addressed during the intervention, whilst also enabling participants at SIMOPS sessions to visualise the worksite in 3D.

Contact: Stephanie McHardy, BP
stephanie.mchardy@bp.com

New technology and focus on performance management improves efficiency of BP’s drilling operations

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Major oil and gas operator, BP, has achieved a significant reduction in drilling time by focusing on performance management and introducing new technology.

During the appraisal of the possible third phase of development on the Clair field, West of Shetland, the application of new technologies, applying lessons from previous drilling campaigns alongside a rigorous focus on performance management reduced drilling time by 24 days per 10,000 feet drilled compared to previous campaigns.

The continuous improvement from the first well to the last saw productive rig time – the underlying operational time to complete the same tasks – improve from 53 days to 39 days. The implementation of new technology saved an average of four days’ drilling per well. In addition, completing a dual zone well test in a single run instead of two saved two to three weeks of well testing operations.

Russell Morrice, BP Drilling Engineering Manager commented: “Our approach to well operations in the appraisal of Clair reduced drilling time to such an extent that an additional sixth well was drilled within the original five well schedule. This enabled further appraisal of the Greater Clair field in support of both a potential Phase 3 development and ultimately maximising recovery of the UK’s oil and gas. The approach will now be used in other drilling campaigns”.

Nexen – £500,000 saved through efficient induction of “Green Hats”

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Submitted by Nexen Petroleum U.K. Limited

Impact

  • Nexen Petroleum U.K. Limited reduced non-productive time associated with “Green Hats” inductions by 11% – saving approximately £500,000.
  • Improved safety on the platform and enhanced business continuity with experienced personnel returning to do work on the assets.

Description of Best Practice

Nexen set out to reduce the productive time lost through the volume of inductions for personnel unfamiliar with their North Sea assets – otherwise known as “Green Hats”.

Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the workforce is central to Nexen’s core values and culture.  Workers across all platforms receive a thorough induction, welcoming them to the installation and preparing them for their role onboard. This includes safety training specific to each platform, together with an understanding of the company lifesaving rules and culture, before embarking on their job. This induction is mandatory for personnel who are not platform familiar or have not been on the platform within one year.

Each induction session involves an average of 19 hours of training and support which includes approximately;

  • 8.5 hours platform familiarisation for each “Green Hat”
  • 2 hours induction session by core crew
  • 8 hours of core crew  support and shadowing as part of permit to work duty
  • 30 mins attending Offshore Installation Manager’s evening brief

When Nexen analysed the process, the company discovered the planning behind inductions could be tightened up and run more efficiently – and calculated that over 57,000 hours had been lost in 2014 through Non Productive Time.

Nexen recognises the value and skills which new personnel bring to it operations and encourages trainees and new-starts to it assets, and does not discourage this practice. For improved efficiency, requests are made to contractors that when an experienced person is being mobilised, a check is carried out to see if they are platform familiar and if they have been on the platform within the last 12 months.  This decreases the number of one-trip personnel to the assets.

Overall, this has resulted in improved safety to the platform and enhanced business continuity with the experienced personnel returning to do work on the installations.

A number of steps have been introduced to support this initiative, which range from reviewing the trip history of all personnel travelling offshore, planning workscopes around securing platform familiar personnel where possible, and the introduction of “Green Hat” figures within contractual KPIs.  This approach is encouraged across every department in the organisation, onshore and offshore, no matter how big or small the task.

As a result of this initiative, in 2015, Nexen reduced non-productive time associated with “Green Hats” by 11% and has saved approximately £500,000.

Contact: Ray Riddoch
tracey.miller@nexencnoocltd.com

Halliburton – Country PSL Manager

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Submitted by Halliburton

Impact

In logistics, we are leaning out our processes and reducing the areas we see as waste.  We are focused on the future state, deploying the optimum balance between effectiveness – providing the service that either an internal or external customer wants when he or she wants or needs it – and efficiency – providing this service with the optimal use of our resources, including safety, expertise, time, space, money, plant and people.

Description of Best Practice

  • Rationalise systems for mob and demob.
  • Centralised/standardised backload and loadout management.
  • Centralised yard resources.
  • Deploying control tower structures for container and transport management.
  • Consolidation of supplier bases – volume discount and rebates.
  • Re-defining roles/responsibilities and matching competencies.
  • Rationalised yard layout.
  • Review of current customs processes and regimes. Meet new customs code requirements.

Contact: John Suggett
john.suggett@halliburton.com

Nexen – Driving greater efficiency of platform supply vessel fleet through controlling offshore non productive time

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Submitted by Nexen

Impact

  • Focus on reducing offshore Non Productive Time (NPT) has enabled Nexen to challenge the manner in which it operates its Platform Supply Vessel (PSV) fleet and change entrenched ways of working.
  • Resulted in the reduction of PSV fleet by one term vessel and reduction in dependency of ad hoc spothires.
  • Resulted in annualised savings of £3.5 – £4 Million.
  • Further improvements to vessel sailing schedules have the potential to reduce PSV fleet further, saving an additional £1.25 – £1.5 million per annum
  • Vessel savings have been a major contributor in improving Nexen’s lifting costs in 2016

 Description of Best Practice

Nexen’s efficiency drive to controlling ‘dead time’ in offshore vessel logistics has resulted in annualised savings of £3.5 – £4 million and has been a major contributor to improving the company’s lifting costs per barrel in 2016.

The successful initiative has also reduced its PSV fleet by one vessel and lessened dependency on ad hoc spot hires.

In 2015, Nexen embraced the concept of ‘Marginal Gains’ across its UK operations.  The theory is derived from small percentile changes resulting in significant improvements in overall performance.  The marginal gains approach was applied to improvements in the efficiency of offshore logistics, as this is a high cost area for the business.

Prior to this, offshore logistics involving the delivery of equipment, plant and materials from suppliers to  offshore installations, was seen as a tactical activity and little analysis was done on measuring or optimising the efficiency of vessel activity or indeed fleet size.

The business began to explore how it could manage these costs more effectively and initiated increased analysis and understanding of the causes of NPT. This NPT became a key business metric and the leadership team set a stretch target of reducing logistic NPT to below 30% in 2015.

This challenged the offshore teams into placing greater emphasis on planning and scheduling to ensure the PSVs were working more efficiently. Within four months, the target was reached and proved to be sustainable throughout the year. Building on this success, vessel NPT metrics where also examined in conjunction with PSV deck utilisation and port NPT, which demonstrated that further cost management improvements could be implemented, including vessel sharing and ultimately reducing the PSV fleet.

Nexen’s logistics team continued working collaboratively with the onshore asset support teams and offshore teams to develop a revised sailing schedule, based on sharing PSV sailings between Nexen’s Buzzard and Golden Eagle installations.

In January 2016, the vessel sharing was implemented without any disruption to operations and enabled Nexen to reduce the PSV fleet from four vessels to three. At this time, further refinements to the vessel sailing schedules are also being considered to include other Nexen installations. This has been a great example of using high level metrics to challenge engrained behaviours and encouraging greater teamwork to deliver efficiency improvements.

Contact: Granville Clutterbuck
Granville.Clutterbuck@nexencnoocltd.com

 

Wood Group- Alternative access solutions

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Submitted by Wood Group

Inclement weather, intermittent accessibility and poor control of environment are well recognised factors that negatively affect schedule and drive up costs for planned and unplanned activities. Looking beyond traditionally accepted access solutions, which tend to be inflexible, slow to set up and difficult to move, we have achieved significant cost savings by adopting flexible access solutions.

Impact

The most important aspect of access solutions is ensuring the continuous safety of workers. By seeking an optimised approach to each situation we are able to ensure safety, maximise tool time, and assure greater integrity and reliability of delivery by creating a consistent environment. Across the range of access options this can deliver anything from simple gains on worksite efficiencies through to negating a shutdown.

By challenging conventional approaches to access solutions we were able to ensure significant savings on material cost, improved safety and increased tool time.

Description of Best Practice

In deciding upon an access solution Wood Group considers the following aspects;

  • Environment of work area – potential for hydrocarbon release, is a shutdown required?
  • Nature of the work – hot work vs inspection
  • Work at height – can this be avoided?
  • Workface planning
  • Area covered – does the solution need to be flexible?

Case 1: Safezone positive pressure habitats allow hot work and hazardous area operations to take place with fewer isolations and the possibility to avoid an asset shutdown. This system is modular in design and can be modified to accommodate a wide range of works. The system was originally available in the UKCS via one supplier, increasing the likelihood of bottlenecks in deployment and intermittent availability. In 2016 Wood Group purchased 5 systems, with a further 5 currently on order, to ensure that we can deploy the system on our clients’ assets whenever a requirement arises. Including this technology in our in-house suite of services streamlines the delivery and use of the system.

Case 2: In order to assess the integrity of clamped saddle support locations on a gas terminal slug catcher, a specialist vendor required access arrangements and weather protection. A total of 143 pipe supports needed to be inspected over a wide area, meaning that a conventional rolling roof was not suitable. Wood Group considered a range of new solutions to reduce work at height risk, improve productivity, and contain both labour and scaffold hire costs. Ultimately, we selected an aviation industry quality inflatable habitat combined with a rolling scaffold system for this application. Adopting lean access and alternative industry technologies contributed to an 85% saving on the original inspection budget.

Case 3: The strengthening of a congested pipe deck required both a highly controlled environment to ensure the correct bonding of new plates, and the ability to maneuver quickly around changing drilling operations. To overcome the erecting and dismantling of the scaffold we designed a mono-flex sheeted scaffold that can be lifted by the crane and moved into location. This removes the need to carry out multiple erection and dismantling, reducing the risks of carrying out multiple operations on a busy pipe deck and reducing costs.

Case 4: In 2012 we deployed the first remote operated aerial vehicle (ROAV) for offshore use in the UKCS. A typical detailed structural and coating inspection of the drilling derrick would have required the facilities to be taken out of commission for around three weeks. Additionally, to review the condition of the platform under deck would have required considerable under scaffolding and over side work with appropriate supply vessel support. The ROAV was able to carry out the derrick inspection whilst well plug and abandon (P&A) activity continued, avoiding an estimated 3 week shut down and saving around £1,680,000. More importantly, it eliminated the need for four inspectors to carry out the work, which would have required significant use of rope access, thereby virtually eliminating the risk. The use of the ROAV for the under decking review avoided the need for under deck scaffolding and rope access at an estimated cost of £121,000. The ROAV scope of work cost £71,000, providing a saving of £50,000. Finally the use of the ROAV negated the need for over side working and standby vessels for support.

Contact: Philip Oliver
philip.oliver@woodgroup.com 

Perenco – Bringing out of use pipelines back into use

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Submitted by Perenco

Impact

The immediate effect of taking the pipeline out of use was the loss of 60,000 barrels of water injection capacity per day on Furzey Island, ultimately leading to a loss of ~2,400 barrels of oil production per day.

The conventional Horizontal directional drilling option would have taken ~ 14 months to complete at a cost of ~ £5M. The deferred production during this period could be estimated to be over 1 million barrels of oil. In addition a new pipeline would require significant consultation and planning permission to drill in an environmentally sensitive area.

The selected ‘Pipe in pipe’ solution was completed in 6 months for a cost of £2.2M and a deferred production of 430 thousand barrels of oil.

Description of Best Practice

The Wytch Farm Oil field is situated in one of the UK’s most environmentally sensitive areas. On 9th March 2015 following a routine in-line inspection, a 1.2km section of 8” produced water pipeline connecting Furzey Island (in Poole Harbour) with F site (on the Goathorn Peninsula) was found to have severe internal corrosion. The pipeline was immediately taken out of service as a precaution to protect the environment and a project was initiated to restore production.

Conventionally the pipeline would have been decommissioned and replaced using a technique called ‘Horizontal directional drilling’. This would involve a significant project drilling a 1.2km borehole between the two remote sites. A new steel pipeline would then be constructed on the mainland and pulled through the new borehole. Finally the new pipeline would then need to be connected by welding into the buried pipelines at each site.

With technical support from Perenco’s head offices the local team looked for innovative solutions that could repair or re-use the existing pipeline. These included:

  • A tight fit internal sleeve (pulling a PDFE liner into the pipe);
  • A ‘cured in place’ pipeline liner; and
  • A composite ‘Pipe in Pipe’ pulled through the existing 8” pipeline.

The selected ‘Pipe in Pipe’ solution involved pulling a 5”, 155 bar rated composite pipe through the existing pipeline using a small wireline unit on the mainland.

To restore the full 60,000 barrels of water to Furzey Island, an additional 5” and a 4” composite line were installed in two previously mothballed pipelines, already installed between Furzey Island and F site.

The material for each line came on one continuous reel, 1.3km long from the Supplier in Houston. These represented the longest continuous pulled through line of this diameter ever installed using this material. Importantly for the project team this meant that each line could be installed without the need for joints, and therefore potential leak paths in the carrier pipes under Poole harbour.

The actual pull through of each 1.2km line took less than 3 hours!

In addition, the project replaced significant sections of buried steel pipelines on both F & L sites. This involved several complex excavations up to 6m deep. The areas excavated are some of the most congested areas on site with many live pipelines, high voltage cables and other buried services. This required careful civil engineering design to maintain the excavations, to prevent interruptions to operations and to allow the pipeline team to install and weld the new pipeline in the excavations. In total 137 new welds were installed.

The work was successfully completed and the pipeline returned to service on 9th September delivering over 60,000 barrels of water per day to Furzey Island, exactly 6 months from the date the pipeline was taken out of use.

Contact: Rob Smith / Perenco UK

Simply Joined Consulting Limited – Supply Chain Health-check

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Submitted by Simply Joined Consulting Limited

Impact

Previous clients have seen Improvements to their cost base for bought in goods and services, efficiencies in lead time and customer satisfaction performance, as well as the benefits of a united workforce once they have seen and understood the activities and challenges faced by their co-workers.

Due to client confidentiality, we are unable to quote exact figures, but cost savings and improvements are generally in double digit proportions

Description of Best Practice

Our Supply Chain Health-check model guides clients through a simple process to identify and implement cost efficiency and value creation opportunities using the following steps. It is suitable for both internal and external supply chain activity from a technical, commercial, safety, people management and behavioural perspective.

Firstly, we obtain confidential feedback from all stakeholders (The good, the bad and the ugly) via a mix of questions and one to one discussions as appropriate. This is generally followed by workshops where appropriate to fully engage stakeholders and map out internal and external supply chains to identify opportunities. As an independent resource, we mitigate the potential for any conflict or discomfort between customers and suppliers or internally between employees and their peer group or line management.

The health-check activities are focussed on Customer expectations, organisational and corporate beliefs and objectives, and takes into consideration the commercial arrangements that the organisation has with its customers and suppliers.

The outcome is a realistic strategy to survive, develop or grow. The final report is submitted to the client in a format that allows the organisation to prioritise the opportunities and ensure senior level support and action where required to deal with any ‘blockers’ to implementation.

Contact: Steve Johnson
steve@simplyjoined.com

APSYS- Sparing optimisation of a network of compression stations

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Submitted by APSYS

Impact

The customer was provided with the following results:

  • Reduction of sparing at 23 out of 24 compression stations; at one location savings of €1.2M were identified;
  • Availability risk identified at one location resulting in a requirement to increase sparing;
  • A 35 per cent increase in sparing at the central warehouse to provide better network support; and
  • An overall stockholding cost reduction from the M€9.6 to M€2.4 i.e. a reduction by 75 per cent.

Description of Best Practice

Context: A multi-national Oil & Gas service provider into the energy industry operates a network of pipelines and gas compression stations. The customer had requirements to optimise sparing from a cost point of view whilst preserving current levels of availability for this network which comprises 25 sites (gas compression stations, supported by a centralised warehouse facility).

Approach: The study has been carried out in a two-stage approach.First we assessed the logistical readiness for both localised and centralised sparing, using existing data.

The availability was determined by creating a model based of the system and supplied information, along with a snapshot of the inventories at all 25 locations. In the second stage, the model was run to identify opportunities for cost and stockholding optimisation across the entire network, whilst maintaining or improving the existing availability levels. SIMLOG is a software tool which helps to optimize type, quantity, and location of Logistics Elements for one or more repairable systems. This tool has been applied in other industries (Aerospace, Defence, Railway) and tested /validated in the UK by the MOD. It can also be linked to the CMMS (SAP, Maximo) for real time availability analysis.

Contact: Pierre Secher
pierre.secher@apsys.eads.net