EM&I technology reduces UTMs for Gulf of Mexico supermajor
March 16th, 2021
EM&I’s ANALYSE™ technology safely reduces ultrasound thickness measurements (UTMs) on pressure systems has been evaluated by a supermajor in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and found to reduce the number of UTMs by 50% compared to their existing methods.
Equally applicable to refineries, petrochemical and offshore assets, the ANALYSE statistical programme was developed by EM&I and the leading University for Science & Technology in London and is being used successfully on 15 assets throughout the world since its introduction in 2020.
Risk-based inspection (RBI) is a well-established and valuable strategy for managing pressure system integrity and prioritising piping systems for inspection for internal wall loss.
However, conventional thickness measurements coverage and data treatment of RBI prioritised systems, often results in ‘over’ inspection and the uncertainty of finding the minimum thickness even with large number of UTMs.
The supermajor recognised the need to improve their strategy and methodology and asked EM&I to demonstrate the ANALYSE solution. Over 42 000 UTM readings from annual piping inspection campaigns from 2006 to 2020 for the trial platform concerned were retrospectively run through the ANALYSE System.
ANALYSE System
The exercise showed that, had ANALYSE been used for each campaign, an overall reduction in UTMs of 51% could have been achieved and was able to calculate the minimum reading with a probability (1x 10-5) which is considered excellent by API codes.
The ANALYSE System uses statistical analysis of UTM data sets to calculate the probable minimum thickness of a corrosion circuit and checks if it breaks any alarm levels… but with far fewer readings and cost, and reduces UTMs.
EM&I has been asked to submit ANALYSE proposals for the supermajor’s 2021 inspection campaigns substantially reducing inspection time, cost, and people on board (POB).
The next development stage is to develop an ANALYSE app for handheld devices to be used on site. This will give live feedback and instruction to site inspectors as to when sufficient UTM data has been gathered to deliver accurate, representative information and thus avoid wasting time and cost gathering more UTMs than needed.
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