Reaching first oil faster
Commissioning team facilitates progress
M. Frank Erwin
Forship Engenharia Ltda.
In the oil and gas industry, there's a saying among engineers: "Work isn't concluded. It's abandoned." All too often, the delivery date for a project is reached, and the construction and installation firm departs, leaving behind a series of unfinished tasks with which the client's operations and maintenance teams then have to deal. Many of these tasks relate to achieving proper performance of the various platform systems, proper training, and just plain clean-up items.
Brazil's leading oil and gas company recognized this problem, and with its help and guidance, Forship, a firm dedicated to commissioning, was born.
null
The mission of a commissioning team is to help clients achieve their goals of having a platform that performs as expected within the time period allowed. An experienced commissioning team ensures that the company reaches first oil faster. Unfortunately, commissioning has often been treated as an extension of construction and installation and was routinely performed as an after-the-fact activity when budgets were tight.
Over the years, there has been recognition that specialized commissioning personnel were needed. The problem is that the philosophy adopted by some of these commissioning firms is to view themselves simply as subcontractors. In this role, they are solely suppliers of labor who do not assume the risk of carrying out testing and calibration, start-up, or initial operation support. Since there is an inherent benefit to be gained by firms like these from billing as many hours as possible, the client's and service provider's interests are often not aligned. Many such firms also suffer from a lack of management oversight. And there is often little support from in-house engineering, procurement, or logistics teams.
A new way of thinking
According to Fabio Fares, Forship president, commissioning is a specific process made up of a work structure and a combination of procedures that focus on the delivery of a platform in perfect condition for commercial operation. Performance, reliability, safety, costs, and schedule are defined in the contract and documented in accordance with the owner's requirements.
"Since we view our role as a member of the team, Forship assumes the risks inherent in the service provided," Fares says.
Based on this philosophy, Fares has built a company with over 300 engineers and technicians who generate procedures for inspection, preservation, precommissioning, and commissioning of hundreds of devices, systems, subsystems, skids, modules, and entire platforms. Standardizing the work procedures, associated check lists, and data sheets allows a certain degree of uniformity and gives clients assurance that the work will be done right the first time.
Another factor that has contributed to Forship's success is the handover management system (HMS) Web, an IT tool developed to plan and manage all phases of the work. The HMS Web assists teams in managing and controlling the thousands of items, equipment and tasks performed as work is executed. One important aspect that is managed, for example, is the tracking and resolution of the hundreds of "punch list" items/tasks that arise.
The HMS Web system allows real-time Internet access to all project documentation generated in any work area or on the platform where the work is being completed. That means a client in Houston is able to access the documents and information from a US office when the project team issues daily reports from Singapore, Italy, Brazil, or any other location where modules, systems, or subsystems are being commissioned.
An extremely powerful tool has been created through the construction of a large database that is stored within the HMS Web system in the course of commissioning each device, loop, circuit, system, subsystem, and module. The database identifies all pertinent parameters and drawings related to each item as well as data sheets that contain "as-left" information. With this information, an asset life management system can be established and maintained.
Experience
Forship is performing commissioning services on the FPSO Fluminense platform, the P-43, and the P-48, which a large international firm is constructing for Petrobras to operate in the Baracuda and Caratinga fields in the Campos basin offshore Brazil.
Contracted by a major shipyard to coordinate commissioning activities during the FPSO P-50 hull conversion phase of the work, Forship maintains a team of six professionals in Singapore. The scope of work includes planning, engineering, and coordinating field activities. While the activities associated with the hull conversion are carried out in Singapore, another part of the contract involves inspecting modules that will eventually be delivered to the integration site, but are being built in Brazil, Italy, and Texas.
Forship has been mobilized since the beginning of October 2003 in Niteroi at a staging area north of Rio de Janeiro, working on commissioning a number of modules for the P-50 FPSO. Work is being done at two other sites besides the main shipyard. Four modules are in an area north of Rio, and two are at another staging area, where Forship is carrying out receipt inspection and equipment preservation. Forship is concluding the phase of planning and engineering, during which it has prepared the commissioning procedures, organization and staffing plans, scheduling, and lists and manuals. The remaining precommissioning activities will begin soon.