Success Story of First Malaysia Flare Tips Decommissioning in Sarawak Offshore Field Platform

Abstract

The project was for part production enhancement project which to cater for brownfield & greenfield project. To cater to the production (oil) increment for the brownfield project, the existing flare tips and separation system need to be upgraded with higher capacity. The inclusive project was upgrading existing. Part of the scope was decommissioning the existing flare tip and associated system, e.g., ignition panel and ignition pipe. The project will decommission the current flare tips and replaced it with new higher capacity flare tips with Low Pressure (LP) & High Pressure (HP) connection. The existing flare panel was a single-type ignition system. The existing flare tip had LP & HP tip with 8″ inch size; the weight for both tip was estimated at 300 kg. The concept selection was discussed on the suitable method to lifting down the decommissioning flare tip at the offshore platform. There were 2 suitable techniques selected at the initial of the concept selection. One was lifting down the decommissioning flare tip directly from flare boom to vessel. Another method was manual rigging of the flare tips from the flare boom to the lower deck. After several discussions and workshops, it was decided to proceed with manual rigging of the decommissioning flare tip to the safe deck area. The removal of the decommissioning flare tip was performed during turnaround. The total days for the overall activity of the decommissioning & installation of the new flare tip was 3 days, 2 days ahead from planned duration 5 days.