Australian operators approve next-phase subsea studies
Wood says the next phase is under way of an initiative to improve understanding of the reliability of subsea equipment applied offshore Australia.
The company is leading the Subsea Equipment Australian Reliability Joint Industry Project (SEAR JIP), which has support from operators including Chevron Australia, ConocoPhillips, Quadrant, and Woodside.
Their goals are to enhance subsea equipment design and reduce the requirement for costly and time-consuming interventions in the offshore warm water environment.
For the latest phase, the focus will be on:
- Continuing the collaboration effort across a large group of Australian subsea system operators
- Continuing to collect reliability data for subsea equipment for operations offshore Australia
- Expanding a marine fouling subsea test programme, with additional laboratories in northern Australia to assess innovative coatings, materials, and technologies and their ability to withstand calcareous deposition and plant/animal growth
- Establish marine fouling cleaning best practice and identify opportunities to improve the effectiveness of existing practices
- Evaluate the performance of umbilicals and identify best practice remediation.
Adriana Botto, Wood’s project manager for the SEAR JIP, said: “Enhancing the design of subsea equipment to mitigate issues and reduce the requirement for intervention was a key focus in the initial phases of the SEAR JIP.
“Through our collaborative work we have taken significant strides forward in identifying the root cause of equipment performance issues, so that they can be designed out by vendors in the future.
“This phase of the project will build on our work to date, with a key focus on improving understanding of subsea equipment reliability issues. The long-term value of the project will be a step change in industry practice and performance, with lessons learned shared across operators, vendors, and research institutions.”
Source: Offshore Magazine