Wood Group- Maintenance challenge for late life asset management

Submitted by Wood Group

Impact

When we work with our clients on their assets we always challenge scopes of work to offer an alternative solution to the client’s benefit. This challenge culture has helped to significantly reduce the maintenance scope of various projects, especially those in a late life asset management context.

Case 1: Innovation through deviation of painting standards

A platform was being decommissioned with Cessation of Production (CoP) in January 2012 for a single lift removal in 2015.

We noted that there was an extensive fabric maintenance programme due on the platform to maintain integrity. As part of the ongoing evaluation of work scopes, a challenge process was carried out to review the fabric maintenance programme with two opportunities identified to reduce or remove the painting scope.

The proposed reduction required engagement with the client’s technical authorities to agree to a deviation on painting standards which are written for operating assets and are not always appropriate for assets coming to the end of their field life. This proved to be the first deviation of its kind in the client’s organisation.

A total reduction in scope of 42% was realised. The drilling derrick painting scope was reduced considerably by using wax oil instead of normal paint. This took less time to complete, enabling the work to be carried during a planned drilling outage saving £1,120,000 (cost of drilling down time for original scope). Revised scope was estimated at 41 man days, and the scope was completed in 14 man days. This 27 day reduction delivered a total saving of £2,160,000 alongside the obvious HSE benefits achieved by reducing the time spent working at height and over the side.