You are Home   »   News   »   View Article

Improving offshore data management by PETRONAS

Thursday, February 26, 2015

PETRONAS has a major project to data management of its offshore assets - starting with a comprehensive laser scanning program of brownfield assets

PETRONAS has embarked on a program to massively improve its data about its offshore assets, starting by gathering data from a laser scanning program of its brownfield assets.

The company has been collecting laser scan data for its downstream assets over 5 years. Now the laser scanning is being done on its upstream assets as well, said Mohd Nizam Mohd Nasir, head, Facilities Engineering, Production Operation and Technical Data, at the Petroleum Management Unit of PETRONAS Carigali.

He was speaking at the Digital Energy Journal conference in KL on Oct 14, 'Doing More with Offshore Engineering Data'.

After a successful offshore laser scanning pilot, 'this year we tried to make it operational for about 9 assets,' he said. 'Next year we are going all out to do maybe 65 platforms.'

Implementation work is undertaken by the PETRONAS Technology and Engineering group via its Engineering Design Office, he said.

The PETRONAS Engineering Data Management System (EDMS) runs on the Intergraph SmartPlant Enterprise software.

There are many benefits of having better data about offshore assets, including making it easier to track of asset integrity and process safety, better manage maintenance, find ways to reduce costs, increase production if possible, and also prepare for decommissioning. You can also use the data for rejuvenation projects, including enhanced oil recovery.

Laser scanning a small platform can take 5 days, but larger ones can take 10 days, and finding bed space offshore can be hard.

PETRONAS is also looking to improve its greenfield data management.

'Currently when we do development of the platform we engage our EPCs (Engineering, Procurement and Construction contractors) to do our drawings and 3D models, and also to basically create all our technical data,' he said.

Data management system

As a result of this work, the company will have a much better integrated data management system, with all data linked together.

All employees will be able to work on the same data, and information needs to be only changed once and it is updated everywhere.

'When we do any engineering design changes, for example, we replace a compressor, it is automatically updated into SAP. That is the beauty of it.'


'We want to ensure efficient [data] handover from design from development to operation to the maintenance area,' he said.

During the design stage when we do the drawings, when we go to construction, when we go to testing and commissioning, when we go to operation, we want to ensure consistency.'

It will be easier to find data. Currently, 'when people want to do an inspection offshore, they take 3 weeks or 4 weeks to find data or the drawings,' he said.

'If you have a very good dynamic system, we can have it in our fingertips in seconds.'

'We want engineers to focus on their core function,' he said. 'We will supply whatever data they want for them to perform their work.'

Validation

Any data updates can also be validated immediately.

'If there is any update, it has to be validated first. If the part specification cannot go into this particular equipment, they will actually reject it.'

'If your P+ID and your 3D model isn't consistent you get an error.'

'So anything that does not qualify on the business rules does not go into our system.'

Benefits

There are many further benefits of having better offshore engineering data.

The number of required offshore trips will be reduced. 'Currently we need to send people to and from the offshore maybe six times before we can do an installation,' he said. 'When we have the offshore data, we can cut down the trips.'

At the moment PETRONAS spends a large amount of money putting manuals offshore. 'If we have this [system] in place, we will not do that any more,' he said. 'That is very low hanging fruit.'

'When we have an emergency, we want to look for something, we [will be able to] search it as per Google,' he said. '

[you can see] 'Where does this equipment come from, who is the manufacturer, what is the measurement? All this can be linked using the tag number - very easy.'

The system could also be developed to include other data types, such as meteorological data, and integration with other systems, for example turnaround planning, project safety and planning applications.



Associated Companies
» PETRONAS

CREATE A FREE MEMBERSHIP

To attend our free events, receive our newsletter, and receive the free colour Digital Energy Journal.

DIGITAL ENERGY JOURNAL

Latest Edition May-Jul 2024
Jun 2024

Download latest and back issues

COMPANIES SUPPORTING ONE OR MORE DIGITAL ENERGY JOURNAL EVENTS INCLUDE

Learn more about supporting Digital Energy Journal