Chapter 2. Offshore Industry Initiatives on Ageing And Life Extension
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Published:2022
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The offshore industry has now matured since the installation of the first major offshore oil and gas platforms in the 1960s and a significant and increasing proportion of the infrastructure has exceeded the original design life. The industry has recognised in recent years the significance of the concept of ageing and life extension and the need to adapt integrity management procedures to enable continued safe production beyond the design life. As a result, it has taken the initiative to establish two industry groups, the Ageing and Life Extension Committee and the MetOceaN Network, to develop technology and integrity management procedures for the ageing offshore infrastructure and to disseminate the information to stakeholders, with a view to providing a common industry approach.
The Energy Institute (EI) Ageing and Life Extension Committee (ALECOM) has been in existence since 2010 and has supported projects covering a wide range of subjects, including fixed structures, mobile structures, FPSOs, moorings, conductors, caissons, risk-based inspection, performance standards, decommissioning, fatigue assessment and ship impact. The EI MetOceaN Network was launched in 2020 and has attracted membership from around the world. The creation of the network was motivated by the need to address the assessment of the risk of offshore structures to extreme loading and, in particular, the vulnerability of ageing structures which were not designed to the same criteria as more contemporary structures. A key aim of the Metocean Network is to develop guidance on the assessment of extreme loading and to enable the development of standards procedures reflecting the latest knowledge on the subject.
This paper presents the work of the two industry groups.