Integrity and Life Extension Assessment of Fixed Offshore Platforms

A considerable number of fixed offshore platforms around the world have either already surpassed their design life or are approaching it. In the Middle East, more than 70% of the platforms are operating for more than 25 years; some of the assets are even operating for more than 40 years. High oil price and advancement in technology planned to increase the productivity of reservoirs have led to significant investment in terms of cost and resource to manage these assets. There is still a lot of recoverable oil and gas in the reservoirs hence, there is an increased need to extend the life of these facilities while managing the associated risk. This technical paper details a methodology for assessment of remaining life and details some of the degradation/ life extension issues for fixed offshore assets. As it is extremely difficult to cite all the degradation issues, some of the critical degradation issues based on experience and knowledge has been covered in this paper.