Whether they are working in the moderate Gulf of Mexico or the more treacherous North Sea, at shallow depths or levels where divers can’t reach, offshore operators face certain common issues, such as the best way to increase throughput, and how to mitigate risk associated with construction, flow assurance, integrity management and repair.
Participating in joint industry projects (JIPs) is one way operators can collaborate to solve the problems they share.
JIPs are focused on advancing technologies to meet operators’ business needs, particularly in the realm of increasing production and extending reserves.
By leveraging the resources of its members, the JIP can often come to a solution faster and with more likelihood of commercial success than any single participant toiling on its own.
T.D. Williamson (TDW) recently launched its Engineering Services department, and it has a lot in common with JIPs.
Both build upon collaborative relationships to generate innovations.
In fact, the Engineering Services department was created by leveraging portals for success, like integrating knowledge from intra-industry sources, as well as from TDW’s internal experts.
In addition, both JIPs and the Engineering Services department are the result of market demand.
Operators have often requested that TDW partner with them in developing conceptual solutions to complex operational challenges, but until now, the company had not institutionalised a process for generating cross-functional solutions spanning multiple departments.
Engineering Services Manager George Lim thinks the new department could also become the formal gateway for TDW to participate in more JIPs.
“JIPs are a common practice in the offshore industry in particular,” Mr Lim said.
“They’re a way for service providers to partner with operators to better understand the market challenges and contribute to more comprehensive solutions.”
Answers to complex questions
As the manager of Engineering Services, Mr Lim is a bit of a guru, or in today’s business parlance, a thought leader.
However, instead of spiritual seekers, he is sought out by operators looking to manage their businesses with greater certainty and less risk.
Rather than being perched on a mountaintop, he is easily accessible by phone or email.
No pitons, boots or climbing expertise required.
Finally, unlike the crest-dwelling guides of old, Mr Lim doesn’t work in seclusion to solve the issues that operators bring to him – challenges that lately have ranged from how to detect and plug leaks in an Arctic subsea line using fibre optic cable, to the remote control of subsea hot tapping in water 1,500 m deep. Instead, Mr Lim assembles subject matter experts from the company’s regions and centres of excellence, teams them with subcontractors and other partners when necessary, and leads them through a process that includes:
- Evaluating the operator’s technical issue and objectives;
- Reviewing operational, economic and environmental considerations; and,
- Developing an engineered solution drawing from multiple areas of expertise.
If this sounds like the stuff of engineering and feasibility studies, well, it is.
Engineering and feasibility studies are among the types of integrated work Engineering Services produces, along with method statements, narratives and calculations for opportunity scoping.
Developed at operator request
With more than 30 years of offshore experience on his resume, there is no question that Mr Lim understands the unique demands of offshore operations.
In fact, he was recently also named the company’s interim Director of Offshore Market Development, a position he’ll hold concurrently with his Engineering Services role.
But how did he know that operators would welcome the kind of comprehensive problem solving that Engineering Services furnishes?
The short answer is, because they repeatedly request it through TDW’s regional sales teams.
Like the time the United Kingdom engineering and procurement division of a global energy company asked TDW for help removing a stuck pig and wax plug from a 406.4 mm pipeline.
Mr Lim’s team provided a method statement and remediation proposal that integrated products, services and multiple skill-sets.
Or when an operator in the North Sea, unfamiliar with subsea hot tapping, desired to tie-in a new, piggable oil line into an existing export line.
The Engineering Services response included everything from a hot tap market study, business and technical risk and piggability assessment to the subsea hot tap procedure, and evaluation of the isolation valve and fitting options.
The study results were incorporated into a proposal for the actual tie-in services, including the supply of valves and fittings through subcontracted vendors.
“The offshore industry is extremely cautious,” Mr Lim explains.
“There are a lot of steps they take in advance to make sure their operations are done correctly. Studies are a typical tool of offshore operators. Any time they need to do something and they are not sure what the risk looks like, they initiate an engineering study.”
Mr Lim goes on to state that it is not the intention of Engineering Services to compete with the established industry of independent engineering companies who traditionally provide front-end engineering and design work for operators.
Instead, the department is a response to customer requests for the specific knowledge that TDW can bring, given its experience and expertise in intervention, isolation and pigging technologies.
According to Chief Technology Officer Jeff Wilson, who oversees Engineering Services, the department not only enables TDW to participate in operators’ studies, it also allows TDW to create solutions that are more comprehensive in scope.
“Instead of channeling a request to one department, we are identifying what the operator’s greater needs are and bringing distinctly different technologies together to meet them,” said Mr Wilson.
“We are accelerating our progress as an integrated concepts solution provider.”
Preparing operators for what is next
So far, Mr Lim and the teams he has pulled together have guided offshore operators toward sound decisions of how to deal with pipeline flooding, pipeline blockage, diverless subsea tie-ins, corrosion and related threats, deepwater wax and hydrate remediation, and the impact of dents, ruptures and repairs.
They have also been involved in emergency preparedness work.
This is an area where Mr Lim and Mr Wilson see tremendous opportunity for the industry, particularly in planning ahead to minimise the effects of unexpected events ranging from infrastructure damage to weather disasters.
The emergency pipeline repair system studies that TDW offers not only calculate the probability of failure, they also demonstrate the potential risks of various emergency situations and outline different repair scenarios.
Between ageing pipelines (30 per cent of the world’s 250,000 km of offshore pipelines are at least two decades old); unpiggable lines (about 50 per cent of offshore pipelines can’t be pigged); and pipelines simply too deep to be reached safely by divers, offshore companies have a lot of risk to avert.
For more information visit www.tdwilliamson.com.