Asset Integrity Management - From General Requirements to Subsea Facilities: Total Block 17 Experience
Authors: Rocher Anne , Perrollet Christian , Muir Keith 
Published: May 2011

Past and more recent accidents have alerted the Oil & Gas Industry, highlighting the need to better control the risks associated to production operations, from design to abandonment. Total E&P have embarked for several years on the development of an improved Asset Integrity Management approach that covers all aspects of production activities. An Asset Integrity Management framework is now in place, describing major requirements Total E&P Business Units shall progressively comply with, including elements of the 3P principle: Plant - Processes - People. The organization of Total producing affiliates has been adjusted to ensure the management of Asset Integrity is given an appropriate focus, such as the nomination of Asset Integrity Managers reporting to the senior management of companies.

Subsea facilities and especially deep subsea developments are becoming one of the cornerstones of Total E&P future. These facilities require a specific attention as the deployment of new technologies both subsea and onboard FPSOs do not always authorize the same level of direct control of asset condition. Specific precautions have to be taken at the design stage to ensure adopted design solutions will not compromise the long term safe operation and also to develop monitoring techniques that will allow indirect condition follow-up, compensating the lack of direct access for usual inspection.

This paper describes briefly Total E&P Integrity management Framework and focuses on aspects related to subsea facilities such as project requirements and organization, expert in-service surveillance organization, deep subsea monitoring techniques applied to production systems, floating units, mooring systems and well equipment.

Introduction

Past and more recent accidents in the Oil & Gas Industry have highlighted the need to better control the risks associated with production operations, from design to abandonment. Total E&P have embarked for several years on the development of an improved Asset Integrity Management approach that covers all aspects of production activities. An Asset Integrity Management framework is now in place, describing the major requirements Total E&P Producing Affiliates (PAs) shall progressively comply with, including elements of the 3P principle: Plant - Processes - People. The organization of Total E&P PAs has been adjusted to ensure the management of Asset Integrity is given an appropriate focus, with the nomination of Asset Integrity Managers reporting directly to the senior management of companies.

Subsea facilities and especially deep subsea developments are becoming one of the cornerstones of Total E&P's future. These facilities require specific attention as the deployment of new technologies both subsea and on board FPSOs does not always allow the same level of direct control of the asset condition. Specific precautions have to be taken at the design stage to ensure that the adopted design solutions will not compromise long term safe operation and also to develop monitoring techniques that will allow indirect condition follow-up, compensating for the lack of direct access for traditional inspection means.

This paper briefly describes the Total E&P Integrity Management Framework and focuses on the aspects relating to subsea facilities such as project requirements and organization, expert in-service surveillance organization, deep subsea monitoring techniques applied to production systems, floating units, mooring systems and well equipment. The example of the Angolese Total PA is taken to illustrate an implementation of the strategy.