W I R E L I N E
- I S S U E 2 9 A U T U M N 2 0 1 4
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Breathe new life into offshore assets
Managing the ageing and life extension of offshore installations is itself maturing into a
sophisticated area of activity.
Wireline
talks to the teams at Fairfield Energy Limited and Nexen
about a discipline closely attuned to the industry-wide drive for continuous improvements in
safety and to prolong the UKContinental Shelf’s production life.
A
geing is a natural process for us
all. So why not apply a similar
forward thinking approach to the
life cycle of offshore platforms as
we do towards the big decisions we
inevitably make in our personal lives?
For Ian Sharp of Fairfield Energy and
Andy Robertson of Nexen, this is just
plain common sense.
“The Health and Safety Executive’s recently
completed strategic inspection programme
examining the industry’s management
of ageing and life extension (ALE), Key
Programme 4, has re-affirmed that we have
to think about ALE for our installations much
earlier than we typically do,” says Ian, chief
operating officer at Fairfield (see box-out on
or more on Key Programme 4).
“Effective ALE management is fundamental
to ensuring longer term asset safety and
maximising economic recovery. If you
don’t think about it from the outset, it is
possible your installation won’t be around
for as long as you need it to be.”
And as the industry seeks to maximise
recovery, many installations will remain
The Dunlin cluster of fields in the east Shetland basin, which
Fairfield Energy acquired in 2008, have been the focus of a
several hundred million pound programme of upgrades over the
past six years. The impetus behind the work is rooted in a 2010
vulnerability study, which assessed every system on the platform
and prioritised repair, replacement or upgrade
NEWS ROUND-UP
AGEING A D LIFE EXTE SION
HEALTH AND SAFETY
