Gasco’s management is committed to taking a proactive approach to managing asset integrity. The company has had an increased awareness and focus on this subject not only due to its ageing facilities but also to the need to build integrity into the company’s new facilities.
Whilst Gasco has not suffered any major incidents, they know that they cannot be complacent in this regard. Gasco selected DNV to help them identify threats to their business and to develop an Asset Integrity & Reliability Management System (AIRMS) framework.
Gasco is an operating company engaged in the extraction of natural gas liquids from associated and natural gas in the United Arab Emirates. Gasco currently operates three extraction plants, two gas plants, one NGL fractionation plant, two gas injection plants, two gas distribution hubs, road tankers for transporting liquid sulphur, and a high pressure (40 bars) gas pipeline network that includes 25 consumer receiving stations for supplying gas to 13 gas consumers. Common to all the NGL extraction and gas plants is the Ruwais plant for the purpose of NGL treatment, fractionation, storage and shipping.
Gasco is expanding its gas processing capacity significantly by building two new NGL extraction trains and a new liquefaction train. Existing plants will also be expanded to increase their capacity.
Threats to the business
Gasco wanted to identify the threats to its business. although the probability of the events happening is rather small, the consequences for the business could be severe.
“Some work was carried out internally. We identified some assets and scenarios that would interrupt our ability to do business,” says Andy Perry, the head of Gasco’s Integrity Department.
He continues: “DNV was first asked to come in and review the scenarios Gasco had already identified, and to check to see if they could find any other threats. Secondly, DNV was asked to try to quantify the risk to Gasco, and to propose any measures Gasco could take to reduce this risk. That work has been completed and a report has been submitted. From this, Gasco has been able to prioritise some of its projects to address these concerns.”
“DNV did not come across anything new, but could confirm what we had found,” states Andy Perry. The method used was to team up DNV experts working closely with Gasco staff. Workshops were carried out at all the sites where the business threats were being looked for. This included Gasco’s four plant divisions and the pipeline division. DNV then looked into the likelihood and consequences of a major business interruption.
Alignment between policy and activity
DNV has also been involved in the preparation of an Asset Integrity and Reliability Management System (AIRMS) framework as a follow up to the Asset Integrity Policy that Gasco developed and issued in 2004.
The purpose of the framework was to ensure alignment between the high level policy and what happens on the site to ensure asset integrity.
“In Gasco, asset integrity is managed as a part of the company’s HSE management system,” says Andy Perry. His team works hand in hand with the HSE division.
“The AIRMS is fully aligned with and has a similar structure to our existing HSE management system,” says Perry. “Dealing with the engineering and technical part of the plants’ and pipelines’ asset integrity is important. Our HSE track record is good based on any performance indicator. However, we want to ensure that we have the asset integrity we are aiming for and need.”
As part of the project, DNV reviewed all the sites to see how well Gasco was doing in asset integrity management compared to the framework’s requirements. DNV conducted an analysis of the gap between the actual asset integrity performance on the sites and the required performance stipulated in the framework.
The gap analysis produced an improvement plan that Gasco has started to implement. In 2005, Gasco implemented five of the initiatives and actions identified in the improvement plan; in 2006 the company will complete another 11 items.
“Root Cause Analysis”
Gasco wants to determine and address the root causes of all high- and medium-risk integrity and reliability incidents that may occur.
“A Root Cause Analysis (RCA) procedure was developed jointly by Gasco and DNV in 2004. This procedure is applied
to discover the root causes of any incidents and not just the symptoms,” explains Andy Perry. DNV was then invited back in 2005 to review Gasco’s implementation of the procedure and to update and revise it as necessary. The second phase of this has now been completed.
Andy Perry – seconded to Gasco from Shell – has worked in the oil and gas industry for 25 years: “I’ve seen DNV develop from a traditional certification and classification society into a much wider business base and consultancy company.”
Gasco’s and its sister company Adgas’s Asset Integrity Frameworks were developed by DNV in parallel, so they are identical.
“This is important for us so we can learn from each other and implement best practices together,” emphasises Andy Perry.