Life Extension Studies

Increasingly, offshore oil and gas production platforms are being operated beyond their original design lives, frequently by operating companies who were not the original builders and owners.

This raises many challenges to which legislating bodies have responded by applying somewhat more prescriptive rules to operating these facilities.

EPEn have processes and methodologies which provide the Operator with a status report on his facilities, and a prediction of future investment likely to be needed to meet new field and asset life expectations.

An Asset Life Assessment is a process whereby the construction, history and mode of operation of a selected critical items of platform equipment are examined together with the culture and practices of the organisations responsible for asset integrity management.

Asset Life Assessment of each item is made mainly on the basis of information supplied by the onshore and offshore based teams. The process does not involve detailed inspection of equipment and judgements are made on longer term sustainability rather than the immediate integrity or reliability status.

The judgments are based upon a balanced view of the anticipated actions and costs required to keep the equipment operational at the present level of integrity for the expected life time of the assets.

The Asset Life Study methodology considers the impact of equipment sustainability on operations, including reliability, supportability, obsolescence, and maintainability.

Some equipment will require higher levels of maintenance spend due to known problems of proximity to limit of working life or obsolescence. In situations where items may require replacement, costs are provided for direct replacement. Typically, no process enhancements will be included unless requested by the Client.

The Asset Life study will identify areas of concern on critical equipment where it can be expected that the life will not extend to the expected life of the field and platform. Similarly, significant maintenance expenditure over and above the normal requirements will be identified.

Recommendations for improvement of work processes, and maintenance or replacement investment in equipment will be direct, provided by our expert Asset Life Assessment consultants, experienced in the design, construction, maintenance and operation of similar facilities.