Pipeline Assurance Simulation Solution

Project Summary

Maintaining the safety and operational efficiency of subsea pipelines is critical to the offshore industry.

Current risk based inspection (RB) methods for accurately predicting the condition of the pipelines are based on an initial as-built state and physical/chemical models. While these methods are cost-effective, they do not provide accurate pipeline condition data, which means significant resource is spent on inspection methods.

Historically, flow assurance software could not be used to drive or underpin inspection campaigns (capability and cost), which is why Apollo has developed a Pipeline Assurance Simulation Solution (PASS) to address this.

PASS is a new modelling tool that can accurately predict the integrity of a pipeline, providing the opportunity to refine when physical inspection campaigns are actually required.

If applied to just 10% of North Sea pipelines, this could save the industry up to £25million per year.

OUTCOMES

Inspection for internal corrosion of subsea pipelines is typically carried ot by inline inspection (ILI) or external non destructive testing (NDT). The UK industry currently spends approx. £0.5M per pipeline on inspection per annum on average. In the wider context of the UKCS there are approx 500 pipelines of primary interest if the application of PASS can be used to defer ILI for just 10% of the pipelines the industry would save up to £25M per year.