Application of risk-based inspection for pressurized HC production systems in a Brunei petroleum company

Abstract A large number of ageing oil and gas production and evacuation facilities are owned and operated by BSP (Brunei Shell Petroleum). The company is facing the challenge of optimizing the return on inspection efforts in a period of time when more production is required and operating costs have to be minimized. Over recent years significant improvements have been made to BSP's system of planning and performing offshore inspection, in particular concerning the management of hydrocarbon process containment integrity, via a change from a periodic return inspection approach to a risk-based inspection (RBI) approach. This article presents the quantified benefits achieved to date, and the way this process of change has been/is being managed, firstly, to yield the major savings today, and secondly to sustain these gains by setting up processes and systems to support the new way of working. The value of the RBI approach, in terms of its contribution to the company's business drivers, is summarized thus. Cost optimization—the implementation of RBI principles in BSP has reduced the inspection effort (per platform) significantly to a level, which only involves the ‘minimum required’. The move has been to invest more in planning, thereby reducing (eliminating some) offshore execution of work. These benefits have been quantified in Section 3.1. In addition, increased production availability—the approach has assisted in reducing planned shut down times and minimizing unexpected shut downs due to failures. The move has been from shutdown inspection to onstream inspection. These benefits have been quantified in Section 3.2. Finally, safety—has been improved primarily by reducing the likelihood of failures and having fewer inspectors commuting to and working offshore. The move has been to perform focused inspection on hot spots in the system to reduce HC losses. These benefits have been quantified in Section 3.3.