Be they people or installations on the Norwegian continental shelf, the elderly have in common that they are surrounded by good intentions and fine words.

 

Ensuring that older installations and pipelines can continue to be operated with adequate safety beyond their design lives is a challenge we take seriously.

 

Roughly a dozen of the facilities on the NCS are between 20 and 29 years old, while a handful have been in service for more than three decades.

The regulations specify that operators must seek official consent to use an installation beyond the design life specified in the original plan for development and operation (PDO).

 

Our attention in Gassco is focused on both technical and operational integrity when extending productive lifetimes. In close cooperation with the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway, we carefully assess various risks associated with continued operation.

 

Low probability
All equipment and components on an offshore installation have been designed to ensure a low probability of failure during its planned producing life. Many years of experience and practical use have also taught us how components work and respond to possible corrosion, wear and tear, fatigue or other degradation mechanisms.

 

A number of considerations must be taken into account when extending the producing life of a facility. These include an assessment of whether the failure of a component would have serious consequences, or whether the structure is sufficiently robust to withstand such an incident until a repair can be done. 

 

In Gassco, we believe that it makes sense to use older installations, providing they are safe, rather than shutting down production or building expensive new facilities much too early.

But that naturally calls for a solid understanding of the risk factors which affect safe operation. Because safety is the basis on which everything rests.

 

Crucial
Acceptable care calls for more than a larger number of hands. Good brains with a heightened understanding of risk are crucial, whether the focus is on people or technical installations.

The NCS today is a relatively vigorous 40-year-old, but aging will inevitably become an increasingly important issue. During a long producing life, stresses and strains must be met and handled in an optimum manner.

 

This is ultimately a matter of preserving assets. The litmus test for care of the elderly is how far the human aspects are dealt with in a satisfactory way. That aspect must also pervade the petroleum industry’s approach to the problem on aging on the NCS.

They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. But the challenges presented by aging are too important and demanding for us to be satisfied with fine phrases. Here, as elsewhere in life, well-considered action is what counts.

 

(17.09.2009)