Abstract

The ability of a structure to perform its required function effectively and efficiently over a defined time period whilst protecting health, safety and environment is one of the major task to take into account especially for the old ageing installations. Considering that actual industry and regulatory authorities require the management of integrity not only at the design stage but during the entire service life, a Structural Integrity Management (SIM) process was developed by eni e&p to monitor offshore fields in the world by means of appropriate programmes of periodic inspections and life-extensions assessments. SIM evolved over the last 25 years according to Company best practices. Considering that the underwater inspection of offshore installations is a complex and expensive activity, a risk-based approach was adopted by eni e&p to monitor platforms conditions as an efficient methodology to obtain cost-efficient and state-of-art inspection plans. The risk-based strategy for the development of inspection scopes of work requires a thorough understanding of susceptibility to damage, tolerance of damage, and actual conditions of a platform. Due to the awareness that in-service inspection campaigns can only assess the local platform degradation due to environment, corrosion and accidental impacts, engineering activities as Ultimate Strength Methods are also performed with the purpose of investigating the global platform behaviour and safety level. This typically involves the use of nonlinear, large deformation analysis to determine the maximum loading that the platform can sustain without collapsing, even in presence of local damages. According to these approaches, at present, about 100 offshore conventional platforms installed in Italy seas are monitored, with 40 of them recertified to extend their operative life over the design life. Eni e&p Integrity Assessment approach was also applied to old steel gravity platforms with in-service life of about 40 years in the offshore Congo.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609-pdb.350.iptc16432
2013-03-26
2024-03-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609-pdb.350.iptc16432
Loading

Most Cited This Month Most Cited RSS feed