- Dr. Luis (Luigi) Amendola, PhD.
- Dra. Tibaire Depool, PhD.
- Delvis Castellanos, Ing, Msc.
- Articles
- Asset management, Digital transformation, Operational Excellence
SUMMARY
In the oil, gas, and mining industry, pipeline integrity management has grown into a serious business due to the overall consequences of pipeline failure: economic, social, environmental, and possibly legal. There are many different definitions of pipeline integrity management, including those listed in API 1160 (Managing System Integrity for Hazardous Liquid Pipelines) and ASME B31.8S (Managing System Integrity of Gas Pipelines). As a simple and universally understandable definition, the following is proposed: “a system to ensure that a pipeline network is safe, reliable, sustainable, and optimized.”
A pipeline integrity management methodology is needed to increase reliability and availability, and to effectively manage and minimize maintenance, repair, and replacement costs throughout the lifecycle. The IPR (Risk Priority Index) Methodology for capex and opex optimization in pipeline integrity management is an innovative approach to generate a set of activities necessary to properly manage assets in order to deliver greater safety by minimizing the risk of failures, higher productivity, extended asset life, greater asset availability through improved reliability, lower operational integrity-related costs, and ensure regulatory compliance.
The proposed IPR (Risk Priority Index) methodology for capex and opex optimization in pipeline integrity management with information technology support is developed to meet the unique and specific operational needs of a particular pipeline system. For new pipeline systems, functional requirements for integrity management will be incorporated into the planning, design, material selection, and construction of the system. However, for pipelines already in operation, the integrity management plan is developed after baseline assessments and data integration.
Keywords: Asset Management, Pipelines, Integrity, Risks.
1. INTRODUCTION
Currently, the oil, gas, and mining industry worldwide faces major challenges in managing the lifecycle of its assets and making Capex & Opex decisions. After several years of intensive project generation, the industry has initiated a process of changes in its decision-making strategies. Despite the current situation, new and valuable opportunities are emerging, since as projects begin to materialize, new operational needs are generated in the facilities.
Along with the trend toward greater environmental protection, another trend emerges: the pursuit of greater reliability, availability, and maintainability, which makes it attractive to implement risk-based strategies such as RBI (Risk-based inspection) supported by the decision-making model based on the IPR (Risk Priority Index).
It should be considered that pipeline systems are critical since they have high operating rates, exceeding 98% of the year, and because virtually all production is transported through these systems. This article proposes the challenge offered by implementing a methodology that will measure the reliability of pipeline systems and provide certainty in meeting production targets through cost, risk, and performance optimization strategies.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Below are several relevant aspects related to the conceptual framework.
2.1.- What is asset integrity management?
An effective asset mechanical integrity program provides assurance that a facility’s equipment and systems are properly designed, manufactured, procured, installed, and maintained to ensure their continuous and safe operation throughout the life of the operation.
2.2.- Why is asset integrity management important?
As an integral part of a risk management program, asset integrity management (AIM) focuses on minimizing safety, environmental, asset reliability, regulatory compliance, and business risk through comprehensive data-driven assessment via the IPR; to enable equipment strategies and decision-making for investment alternatives.
Beyond minimizing risk, the primary focus of our IPR methodology is risk-based; to manage asset integrity, improve efficiency, increase uptime, and reduce both CAPEX and OPEX.
A robust AIM solution helps owners and operators optimize the lifecycle of existing assets and overall operational performance of assets.
Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) is an effective and efficient method because it contributes to the integrity and reliability of pipeline integrity assets. It helps properly allocate inspection resources to assets with the highest risk profiles that need greater attention.
Risk-based inspection (RBI) is an effective and efficient inspection planning and management methodology. RBI contributes to the integrity and reliability of static assets in industrial facilities. It helps properly allocate inspection resources to static assets with the highest risk profiles that need greater attention.
Therefore, it is recommended to use RBI as the default method, especially during major maintenance projects, rather than waiting for static asset failures, with related unsafe situations and consequent damage.
RBI is considered part of the risk-based maintenance (RBM) approach and is also considered a way of working toward condition-based maintenance (CBM).
Risk Assessment
For each piece of static equipment, the probability of failure and consequences of failure are evaluated, based on data from the RBI database. The failure probability analysis must address all deterioration mechanisms to which the equipment under study is susceptible.
The following consequences must be considered:
- Financial aspects
- Health aspects
- Environmental aspects
- Regulatory consequences.
Health indices represent a novel way to capture and quantify the results of maintenance operations, field inspections, and in-situ and laboratory testing into an objective and quantitative picture. This provides the overall health of assets to determine the Risk Priority Index (Capex & Opex).
Asset health indices become a powerful tool for managing assets, identifying investment needs, and prioritizing investments in Capex & Opex programs. When properly developed, health indices provide an accurate indication of the probability of asset failures and associated risks. Having established the asset health index under current conditions, future health index values can be predicted taking into account the impact of environmental and operational conditions along with asset management practices.
PMM CIEx Innovation University (www.pmmciex.com) & Maintenance Intelligence, through the IPR (Risk Priority Index) methodology, designed software (https://decision-apm.com) that incorporates health and impact for calculating the health index to predict the future condition of assets based on the IPR.
This methodology can be used to assess future risks associated with an asset or to select optimal maintenance levels that would provide the appropriate balance between risk and investment and operating costs.
3. METHODOLOGY
Through the methodology in Figure 2, the objectives related to the reference framework and their relationship with the company’s strategic framework (from which they should derive according to best practices) are connected. This will allow building how the “cause-effect” relationship is associated with the Balanced Scorecard, which enables properly setting targets and bands between objectives (alarm, deviation, etc.).
The IPR methodology shows the sequence in which asset needs are prioritized based on their DECISION – APM (IPR). Once this hierarchy is established and, based on budgetary program criteria (budget constraints and/or commitments to other projects), the different needs are filtered or structured, for example, over a period of X years. The next step is to organize initiatives based on an asset group, by location, or by leveraging economies of scale to achieve greater productivity.
4. BENEFITS OF DECISION - APM (IPR)
It is very important to emphasize that the asset management strategy will be defined according to the particular needs of each company and, therefore, it can be stated that different facilities require different asset management strategies.
Currently, the digital transformation of organizations is facilitating the implementation, execution, and supervision of all areas of companies, including the operations and maintenance area. In this area, the set of industrial software technology solutions for digital transformation is encompassed under the name DECISION – APM (IPR): Asset Performance Management. https://decision-apm.com/
Implementing a DECISION – APM (IPR) strategy in today’s organizations, where all business areas are being digitized and data is being collected for exploitation, is essential to remain competitive in current markets.
Implementing this strategy provides numerous benefits for the organization.
Below, we will list the 8 main benefits of implementing the DECISION – APM (IPR) solution.
1. Provides instant information to finance, operations, engineering, and maintenance departments to make the best joint decision.
The current trend in the industry is to provide finance, operations, engineering, and maintenance teams with the greatest amount of contextualized data to make decisions about replacing or continuing to use assets.
While historically work has focused on capturing process and operations data, it is increasingly necessary to also capture engineering, operations, and maintenance data to cross-reference them and have a complete view of our assets. Consideration must be given from “how much to how” (quality), to “in what state they are producing.” Therefore, organizations are increasingly opting for advanced data analysis solutions such as Business Intelligence to empower decision-makers with useful information for their analysis.
This allows organizations to work in the same direction and maximize interdepartmental coordination while minimizing the risk of making decisions with partial information.
2. Identify ROI (Return on Investment).
Increasing asset life will allow obtaining a higher ROI from our organization’s assets.
3. Identify changes in maintenance costs.
DECISION – APM (IPR) allows substantially reducing organizations’ maintenance costs thanks to various factors. Among these factors are: reduction of preventive maintenance, reduction of major corrective maintenance thanks to real-time predictive maintenance, increased efficiency of field technicians, agile decision-making based on real data, etc.
4. Know the asset lifecycle.
By monitoring assets in real time, we can anticipate their failures before they suffer serious damage or cause damage to equipment in the same system. By performing necessary preventive maintenance when appropriate, asset life is extended.
5. Identify unnecessary preventive maintenance.
By implementing the correct maintenance strategy for each asset and monitoring them in real time, unnecessary preventive maintenance is reduced. The decision on the appropriate strategy is made through a study of possible strategies by conducting Risk-Based Maintenance (RBM) planning.
6. Identifies asset availability to meet production or operations objectives.
As a consequence of the points previously described, the availability of all assets in our organization will increase, as well as their production capacity. This will allow the production team to more easily achieve and exceed the company’s production or operations objectives.
7. Adoption of reliability and asset lifecycle strategies.
We will achieve greater reliability by identifying, prioritizing, and resolving risks before they materialize for Capex & Opex decision-making. We will also reduce capital expenditures to extend the economic life of new and existing assets.
8. Investment Alternative Selection.
The model shows an analytical and systematic process for evaluating courses of action for various alternatives. The objective is to choose the path with the best cost-risk-benefit ratio to achieve an objective.
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Amendola.L, 2010, 2022. Gestión Integral de Activos Físicos: Business Solutions Asset Management Maintenance Framework (Spanish Edition), PMM Editorial, Spain, ISBN-10: 8494389718, ISBN-13: 978-8494389719
Amendola.L, 2000, 2022. Modelos Mixtos de Confiabilidad (Spanish Edition), PMM Editorial, Spain, ISBN-10: 841263540X, ISBN-13: 978-8412635409
Amendola.L, 2000, 2022. Gestión de Activos desde la Etapa del Diseño: Dirección y Gestión de proyectos (MAINTENANCE & RELIABILITY STRATEGY SERIES) (Spanish Edition), ISBN-10: 8494389750, ISBN-13: 978-8494389757
API Standard 530, “Calculation of heater tube thickness in petroleum refineries. Fifth Edition, January 2003 ISO 13704:2022 (E)”. Petroleum and natural gas industries.
API 570 “Inspection, Repair, Alteration, and Rerating of In-service Piping Systems”. Second Edition, October 2016.
API 581 “Risk-Based Inspection”. Base Resource Document Second Edition. 2016.
