Houston, Texas May 7, 2013 – Welaptega Marine, world leader in Moorings Fitness for Purpose Assessments (MFPA), is at OTC Houston this week to deliver a paper on life extension of mooring systems on offshore floating production facilities.
The paper, entitled “Mooring System Life Extension using Subsea Inspection Technologies,” will be presented by Welaptega Business Development Lead Engineer Tyler de Gier who co-authored the paper with business development engineer Scott Allan and CEO Tony Hall.
The paper covers aging infrastructure, mooring failures, and risk based inspection techniques.
Life extension requires progressive inspection strategy
Determining the potential for life extension of an asset requires a comprehensive understanding of the current state of a mooring system. This is achieved by executing a well-planned inspection strategy followed by engineering analysis of quantifiable results.
The paper will discuss Welaptega’s Progressive Inspection techniques using 3D and 2D imaging technologies and dimensional technologies for measuring chain and rope mooring systems. Progressive Inspection identifies potential risks on moorings and underwater assets and then takes action to quantify anomalies to gauge their seriousness.
Advances in mooring systems
The Welaptega paper will be presented as part of an OTC technical session on Advances in Mooring Systems. The session will take Place on Thursday May 9, 9:30-noon in Room 600 of the Reliant Park Conference Centre. The session will be be chaired by Tomasz Matlak of Schlumberger and Subir Bhattacharjee of ExxonMobil Production.
Welaptega is part of the Nova Scotia OTC delegation lead by the Maritime Energy Association and the Nova Scotia Department of Energy.
Founded in 1969, the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) is the world’s foremost event for the development of offshore resources in the fields of drilling, exploration, production, and environmental protection.
Halifax, Nova Scotia _ Welaptega Marine has been awarded a contract to inspect the mooring system of the Nganhurra floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility operating in waters off the coast of North West Australia.
Welaptega has sent a team of specialist engineers to the facility to conduct a Progressive Inspection program using its Rope Measurement System (RMS) and 3D-modeling system (3DM).
“Our Progressive inspection philosophy is a guided examination of mooring systems that focuses on known problems and failure modes,” says Tony Hall, President and CEO of Welaptega Marine.
“When anomalies, wear or damage is identified, progressive inspection technologies are used to zero in on the problem and identify its characteristics and operational implications.”
Nganhurra FPSO is operated by Woodside Energy Ltd., and is the first oil production facility in the deep waters off the North West Cape.
The vessel operates in water depths of approximately 2000 feet and can process 100,000 barrels of oil per day. It has a storage capacity of one million barrels.
London, Oct 30, 2012 _ Failures of mooring systems in offshore floating production are not easy to predict, but they do occur, and they will happen more often as infrastructure nears the end of design life.
“It is mission critical that we do the detective work up front on these ageing systems,” according to Tony Hall, CEO of Welaptega Marine. “It’s imperative that we identify any phenomenon that could put a facility at risk of failure.”
Hall, whose company specializes in risk-based mooring integrity verification, was speaking to a group of offshore integrity experts attending a seminar on ageing infrastructure. It was convened by the Oil, Petrochemical and Energy Risk Association (OPERA).
“It’s not good enough to do the postmortem on a failure. That’s too late. We need to be on the lookout for deteriorative mechanisms that put the system at risk of failure so preventive action can be taken.”
He said risk-based inspection must be guided by experience of mooring systems and industry best practice. This means looking for risky areas where a deteriorative phenomenon is known to have occurred before.
“Industry has already identified many of these phenomena through operational experience which has been captured in the Oil & Gas UK guidelines on mooring integrity management , and the various Joint Industry Projects on mooring integrity (JIP).”
He said it’s also important to identify other types of deterioration which may not have been associated with failure in the past but that could still lead to failure.
He pointed to mechanisms such as sulfate reducing bacteria, heavy wear and corrosion at the turret, and bird-caging of wire rope.
He said this issue is more important than ever now that offshore reservoirs are being extended for further oil and gas extraction. There is greater demand for older assets like FPSOs to function as tiebacks and gatherings.
Welaptega has built up an in-depth knowledge of moorings after 15 years in the subsea inspection industry. It has participated in industry JIPs and developed its own technologies to identify and quantify subsea damage caused by age-related deterioration and impact.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 17, 2012 _ A new sense of urgency is emerging around ageing offshore infrastructure as facilities reach the end of their design lives and major incidents cost millions - in some cases billions, a group of integrity management experts heard during a Petronas seminar on Managing Risk on Ageing Offshore Infrastructure.
“Major incidents are leading to loss of life, environmental damage and huge costs in damage and lost production,” said guest presenter Tony Hall, CEO of mooring integrity leader Welaptega Marine. “If we don’t take care of these ageing offshore facilities, significant loss of assets is inevitable.”
Hall, whose company is world leader in risk-based integrity verification in the floating production sector, says moorings are an example of “safety critical systems” which are subject to immense environmental forces including waves, currents, abrasion and hurricanes.
Continue reading “Sense of urgency erupts around ageing infrastructure” »
Halifax, Nova Scotia _ Welaptega Marine is pleased to announce that it has completed a first with its in-water baseline survey on the mooring system of BP’s Skarve floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel in the Northern North Sea, Norway.
The in-water inspection was completed after a dry baseline inspection conducted in 2010 prior to installation.
Welaptega’s team of offshore engineers deployed its Chain Measurement System (CMS), 3D modeling system and the Rope Measurement System (RMS) to complete a full survey of rope and chain moorings.
This is part of BPs on-going risk based integrity program to help the operator understand the condition of the mooring system over the lifetime of the FPSO.
By Tony Hall,
CEO Welaptega Marine
Hurricane Isaac has caused an estimated $500 million to $1 billion in damages to the offshore energy sector in the Gulf of Mexico.
According to the catastrophic risk modelling firm Eqecat this includes lost production and fixed platforms, floating facilities and subsea infrastructure.
Hurricane Isaac did not inflict the damage on Gulf of Mexico offshore infrastructure that hurricanes Ike and Gustave did in 2008.
In that year, 60 offshore platforms were destroyed and more than 100 were damaged, this despite the fact that many damaged platforms were designed with hurricane forces in mind.
But Hurricane Isaac is yet another wake up call to offshore oil and gas sector, insurance companies, regulators and investors.
Huge costs of damage and lost production
Isaac brought offshore oil and gas production to a near standstill in the Gulf of Mexico. According to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, all US Mobile Offshore Drilling Units are keeping station.
The damage that occurred in 2008 and in storms of 2005 were also wake-up calls for the offshore oil and gas sector in the Gulf of Mexico. Continue reading “Hurricane Isaac costs Gulf of Mexico $500 million to $1 billion” »
This report is authored by Boston-based investor coalition Ceres and environmental advisory firm David Gardiner & Associates.
Oil and gas companies are doing a terrible job of disclosing climate and deepwater drilling risks, even in light of the tragic Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a new report.
While companies are making extensive capital investments related to climate change and deepwater drilling, they are generally failing to adequately disclose the associated risks in a manner consistent with US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) rules and growing investor expectations, according to a report co-authored by Boston-based investor coalition Ceres and advisory firm David Gardiner & Associates.
Disclosure on risk exposes investors
The report evaluated SEC filings for the 10 largest US-listed oil and gas companies – Apache, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Eni, ExxonMobil, Marathon, Shell, Suncor and Total – none of which received an excellent rating in the report.
“We didn’t find any of the disclosure really valuable enough to help investors understand the risks,” said Jim Coburn, senior manager of investor programmes for Ceres.
BP, Eni and Suncor provided relatively better climate risk disclosure than other companies reviewed, while Apache and ExxonMobil provided the lowest quality disclosure, according to the report.
Investors want assessment and disclosure to weather risks
The 10 companies were evaluated in six categories and, of the 60 total ratings, only five were marked as ‘good’ and 34, more than 50%, were ranked poor or undisclosed.
Physical risks got short shrift in most filings, with six companies providing no disclosure, three offering poor disclosure and only BP making fair disclosure, the report stated. But investors want these companies to assess and disclose how vulnerable their operations are to extreme weather events such as increasing storms, rising seas and severe droughts, Coburn said.
Continue reading “Investors raising concerns over drilling risks” »
InterMoor’s Kent Longridge believes that mooring integrity management could help to avoid disasters for floating production systems (FPS).
In 2011, there were two serious incidents in the North Sea, where mooring failure is now almost double the world average.
These incidents, have led insurance companies to increase the cost to cover FPS operators. Alternatively, they are tending to extend the period before lost production payments are made. This was often 60 days; now it is not uncommon for insurance companies to stipulate 180 days before payout.
Demand for mooring integrity will grow
“Recent events have only served to increase the attention being given to mooring system integrity.The feedback we receive from customers suggests increasing demand for mooring integrity management in the future.”
In the past Longridge says, industry has not embraced mooring integrity.
Mood is changing on mooring integrity
“However, we sense the mood is changing. More and more FPSs are remaining in service beyond their planned production lives. Some that were expected to produce for 15 years are still in service after 25 years. Weather patterns are also changing; the frequency of extreme events is increasing. There are also questions about design assumptions that have not changed fundamentally for many years, and, of course, safety and the environment become ever more important issues.”
Continue reading “Mooring integrity is not a luxury – it’s a necessity” »
Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 27, 2012 - Welaptega Marine, world leader in solving complex underwater problems, is launching an intelligent imaging solution to detect and measure deterioration of wire rope moorings of FPSOs.
The Wire Rope Inspection Service (WRIS) provides targeted quantitative visual inspection of regions of unsheathed wire rope where deterioration is known to occur.
FPSO operators concerned about wire rope
Welaptega is offering the new service in response to concerns raised by FPSO operators during the recent Floating Production Mooring Integrity Working Group at the FPSO Forum in Wageningen, Netherlands.
“At the Forum it became quickly evident that the industry has a growing problem with unexpected and premature failure and deterioration of wire rope mooring lines,” said Tony Hall, CEO and founder of Welaptega.
Wire rope deterioration takes several forms
“FPSO operators and other industry players talked about wire rope line failures, strand breakage and localized deteriorative mechanisms of wire rope. We have the tools to provide reliable data on wire rope condition, specifically to identify and quantify the types of deterioration that is leading to an increase in mooring line failures”
“If you want to prevent a failure one needs to be proactive and look for evidence of deterioration. That’s what we do” said Hall.
Welaptega quantifies deterioration
The Welaptega service identifies and quantifies these types of deterioration using a selection of its proprietary mooring inspection technologies, all of which are accredited by DNV and Lloyds Register:
Rope Measurement System (RMS)
High-definition 3D-Video (HD3DV)
3D photogrammetric modeling (3DM)
Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 2012 – Welaptega Marine, world-leader in underwater inspection on offshore installations, is pleased to announce it has been awarded a patent for its Rope Measurement System (RMS).
The patent was awarded by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
The RMS identifies potential damage to the interior and exterior of wire and fibre ropes used in mooring systems on offshore facilities.
“Rope measurement improves asset integrity
At the moment, operators are limited to time-consuming and expensive, visual inspections,” said Anthony Hall, CEO and founder of Welaptega Marine. “The RMS gives them the opportunity to measure and monitor rope mooring lines without removing them from the water. This reduces downtime and risk.”
Deployed by ROV, it identifies changes in rope or wire geometry. These measurements are indicators of potential deterioration which can increase the risk of failure in a mooring system.
Moorings are safety critical systems
Mooring failure is considered to be a Class 1 Hazard, the highest rating issued by the UK offshore regulator, the Health and Safety Executive.
The system has been deployed in Norway, Spain, the UK and Australia.
RMS is part of the Welaptega Subsea Intelligence Suite™ comprising the Chain Measurement System (CMS), 3Dimensional Video (3DV) and 3Dimensional Modeling (3DM).
The RMS has Canadian and EU patents pending, and is accredited for mooring inspection by both Lloyds Registry, and the Norwegian equivalent DNV (Det Norske Veritas).
