Offshore Asset

Integrity
management
advances with New Technologies

Pam Boschee
Oil & Gas Facilities Editor

Lockheed Martin’s Marlin system is

mobilized in three lifts.

Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin.

A sset integrity management
encompasses the design,
operation, and maintenance of an
asset to preserve its integrity at an
acceptable level of risk throughout its
operating life. Protection of health,
safety, and the environment is a
critical component of the processes
and procedures used to monitor the
conditions of offshore surface and
subsea facilities and structures.
Monitoring, modeling, and
inspection capabilities have advanced
as data capture and aggregating
methods have been refined. Notably,
the development and enhancement of
satellite imagery, global positioning
systems (GPS), and the ability to
precisely identify geographic locations
has spurred on new technologies and
applications of technologies.
Monitoring and Inspection
of Subsea Facilities
A field demonstration of a Lockheed
Martin autonomous underwater
vehicle (AUV), the Marlin, completed
in the US Gulf of Mexico in 2011,
validated the AUV’s autonomous
inspection capabilities made possible
by incorporation of advanced GPS
technologies. The work was performed
under a contract with Research
Partnership to Secure Energy for
America (RPSEA). The AUV will be
commercially available later this year.
The Marlin is designed for
shallow-water applications. Weighing
2,100 lbm, the Marlin is relatively
small, said Lewis Dennis, business
development manager with Lockheed
Martin. Its payload capacity is
250 lbm with a volume of 5 ft3. It
can be deployed to depths of 1,000 ft
with an operational endurance of
18 to 24 hours, depending on the
mission profile and onboard sensor
usage. Communication with the
AUV is achieved through an acoustic
modem, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, radio
frequency, or an optional fiber-optic
tether. Navigation is directed through
Doppler-aided inertial navigation,
GPS, feature-/terrain-based
navigation, and ultrashort baseline
sonar, a method of underwater
acoustic positioning. The AUV is
Fig 1—3D model of fixed eight-leg platform in 18 m water depth.
equipped with high-resolution 3D
multibeam sonar from which captured
images are used to build 3D mosaics
with change-detection capability.
The Marlin has benefitted from
the company’s experience in the
development of AUVs for scientific
research, aviation, and military
applications. “The commercial Marlin
pedigree has been in development for a
couple of years,” Dennis said. “Existing,
proven technologies were repackaged
for this commercial offering.”
Dennis said, “The current
technology in the industry collects
data through various means, including
AUVs, divers, remotely operated
vehicles, and the dropping of sensors
onto the seabed. For those technologies,
the post-mission manipulation of data
and building of a mosaic birds-eye view
can take weeks.”
The Marlin is programmed to
operate autonomously using a high-
level mission planner based on the
needs of onshore facilities engineers
who identify the goals of the inspection.
When deployed, the AUV collects a
combination of 3D, georeferenced,
and geotagged data. A low-resolution
model of subsea structures is generated
offshore, which can be used by the
engineers to get a first look at the
data collected, identify problems
for further inspection, and make a
live determination of the situation
(e.g., in post-hurricane applications,
the engineers can see subsea debris and
indications of damage). Dennis said,
“Because the AUV is untethered, it can
make a gross survey of the area and
August 2012 • Oil and Gas Facilities
structure and call out areas of concern
on that model.”
Post-mission, the data is processed
onshore using Lockheed Martin’s
proprietary software to generate
models. Because the data is geotagged,
Dennis said the software eliminates
the false data and builds accurate
models quickly.
Field Demonstration
Validates AUV Technology
Lockheed Martin partnered with
RPSEA and Chevron Technology in the
summer of 2011 to test the Marlin using
two nonoperational fixed platforms
in the Gulf of Mexico, including an
eight-pile platform (Platform 1) and
a four-pile platform (Platform 2). The
first autonomous scan was completed
on Platform 1 in 27 minutes to
demonstrate the capability to build
a high-resolution 3D model of the
platform (Fig. 1).
Autonomous missions were
conducted to demonstrate the system’s
ability to detect large-scale anomalies,
defined as a minimum of 1-m3-size
anomaly in free space (openings
within the platform jacket) or in
encumbered space (against structural
members or joints), or a 1-ft3-size
anomaly in free space. Once the 3D
model of Platform 2 was constructed
from the model-building run, several
anomalies were incorporated into the
3D model, which became the base
model for further inspection missions.
Inspections were then run around the
platform at 15-m offset comparing the
images collected to the base 3D models
17
 4
Acceleration (milli g)
2
−2
NS
EW
−4
0 300
Fig. 2—A typical acceleration trace.
altered with anomalies, identifying
the changes in real time. All of the
anomalies were detected.
Dennis said, “The Marlin
dismisses some of the mundane
human tasks, such as watching hours
of videotape, where everything appears
as it did during the last inspection.
The proprietary software performs
autonomous change detection.
Differences from the last inspection
are highlighted, and a list is generated,
providing nearly real-time reporting.
That list of changes is immediately
available to the customer, in contrast
to taking the images back to shore and
comparing them with videotape from
the last inspection.”
Decommissioning and
Arctic Applications
During planning for decommissioning,
the original fabrication drawings
provide the only data available about
the platform’s structure in some
cases. Over the life of a platform,
ownership may have changed hands
several times, resulting in unavailable
or outdated data. Alterations to the
original platform design, such as risers,
pipelines, and boat landings, are not
documented in the as-built drawings.
Dennis said, “The AUV can model
structures and junk at the bottom
to provide documentation of the
platform’s current condition.”
A deepwater version of the Marlin
is in a design review stage with a
planned delivery and trial slated for
late in 2014, most likely in the Gulf
of Mexico. The MK3’s deepwater
capabilities will include field residency
where the AUV is capable of living in
the field and being operated remotely.
“Arctic regions are on our radar for the
18 Oil and Gas Facilities • August 2012
600 900 1.2×103 1.5×103 1.8×103 2.1×103
Time (s)
deepwater version because of the ice-
over periods,” Dennis said.
Online Monitoring of
Structural Integrity
Structural failure of offshore platforms
can lead to loss of life, loss of asset, and
environmental consequences. When
platforms are susceptible to damage
from environmental wave loading
and fatigue, online structural integrity
monitoring detects member failures
and reduces the risks of platform
collapse between inspections and
improves structural reliability.
Many offshore fixed platforms are
approaching or have exceeded their
original design lives. In seeking life
extensions, operators need to assess the
remaining life, and online monitoring
can offer knowledge of the platform’s
structural performance.
An online monitoring system
based on natural frequency was applied
to the Ninian Southern platform,
operated by CNR International in the
northern North Sea in a water depth of
140 m. Installed in 1977, the platform
jacket is a self-floating, four-legged
design with K bracing. The bracing
system has little redundancy in the
event that one of the braces becomes
severed. The platform has a history of
weld defects and fatigue-induced brace
failures, which have required extensive
hyperbaric weld repair work. An online
integrity monitoring system, provided
by Atkins Oil and Gas, was installed to
continuously measure and report the
natural frequency of the platform in
real time.
The structural integrity monitoring
system (SMS) uses accelerometers
placed on the topside on the deck
above each of the four platform legs.
2.4×103 2.7×103 3×103 3.3×103 3.6×103
Two accelerometers are placed at
each location to measure accelerations
in the platform east/west (EW) and
north/south (NS) directions. Typical
time traces of accelerations are shown
in Fig. 2.
The SMS hardware and software,
developed by Fugro Structural
Monitoring, are contained in a cabinet
in the platform’s control room. Two
systems were installed to provide
redundancy during outage and repair
of one of the systems. The system
identifies spectral peaks and natural
frequencies from the response spectra
for data collected every hour. The
raw time history data are stored in
addition to the hourly summary
data (natural frequencies, mean and
standard deviation of accelerations,
and displacement response).
Periodical backup of the data is made
and stored onshore.
The measured natural frequency
of the first NS node over a 5-year
period of operation is shown in Fig. 3.
Because there is noise associated
with the hourly natural frequency
measurements, 4- and 24-hour and
28-day mean values of natural frequency
are used in the screen information.
In December 2006, a jacket brace
severed and was repaired in October
2007. At the moment the brace severed
in two, a sudden 3% drop in the NS
mode natural frequency was instantly
detectable. Before this event, there
was a period of crack growth around
the circumference of the brace, which
did not lead to a gradual decrease in
natural frequency.
The ability to distinguish brace
failures from other causes of natural
frequency fluctuation is important. The
natural level of noise associated with

Fig. 3—Five years of natural frequency measurement data for first NS mode.
Fig. 4—A pushover analysis model of a
platform jacket.
natural frequency measurement means
that a period of some hours may be
required before a large drop is correctly
identified as brace severance. Significant
changes in topside mass resulting from
Gradual Fluctuations
Due to Topside Mass
Changes
Brace Sudden 3% Change in
Severed Natural Frequency
loading of equipment onto the platform
can also affect the measured natural
frequency. Measurements at the Ninian
platform showed long-term fluctuations
of about ±1% in the first EW and NS
natural frequencies. The fluctuations
occurred simultaneously and correlated
with changes in topside mass during
drilling operations.
Natural frequency monitoring
with the SMS detects full severance
of the individual braces when the
change in natural frequency is greater
than 2%. Because monitoring is
continuous, a severance of a brace
should be detectable on the day it
severs. Information about the face of
the structure on which the severed
brace is located can also be obtained
using other data on which frequencies
are reduced. When the natural
frequency drops below a threshold,
an alert is forwarded to the structural
engineers and further investigation
of the accelerometer measurements
is performed.
The management of the
consequences of failure requires that
the platform possesses sufficient
capacity to withstand loading following
brace severance. Reserve capacity is
determined from pushover analysis
Masking Effect of
Local Vibrations
and is measured using the damaged
strength ratio (DSR). A typical
pushover analysis is shown in Fig. 4.
The DSR is defined as the base shear
under which total collapse of the
structure would occur divided by the
100-year return period wave-induced
base shear. To effectively use SMS,
failure of braces must not result in low
DSR values. Those braces whose failure
is not detectable by the SMS must not
have low DSRs.
Subsea Infrastructure
Imaging and Mapping
Accurate identification of the location
of subsea structures, including
pipelines, is important in risk
assessment when planning new builds,
modifications, and relocations of
structures. Any subsea environment
can be crowded with infrastructure, and
current locations of all operators’ assets
are not readily available
InterMoor launched a software
system that provides up-to-date
photos of the infrastructure in the
Gulf of Mexico using Google Earth to
evaluate the risk of damaging existing
infrastructure (Fig. 5). Users of the
MoorVision system can query the
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s
August 2012 • Oil and Gas Facilities 19
 For Further Reading

OTC 23360 Online Structural

Integrity Monitoring of Fixed
Offshore Structures by Mark
Manzocchi and Liangsheng Wang,
Atkins Oil and Gas, and Mark Wilson,
CNR International.

OTC 23512 Autonomous Inspection

of Subsea Facilities—Gulf of Mexico
Trials by D. McLeod, J.R. Jacobson, and
S. Tangirala, Lockheed Martin Mission
Systems & Sensors.

SPE 145478 The Role of Asset

Integrity and Life Extension in Major
Accident Prevention by David M.
Fig. 5—A screenshot of a map generated by the MoorVision system. Ritchie, ConocoPhillips.

public-domain Gulf of Mexico
infrastructure database and collect and
compile infrastructure data, including
well production, pipeline flow rates,
and reported metering rates within
a 15-nautical-mile radius. A Google
Earth visualization file can be generated
and imported to the consequence
assessment workbook developed by the
American Bureau of Shipping. OGF
RPSEA 09121-3300-05 Phase II Final
Technical Report, Autonomous
Inspection of Subsea Facilities by
Dan McLeod, Lockheed Martin Mission
Systems & Sensors.

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20 Oil and Gas Facilities • August 2012