The industry is good at identifying risks, but in some instances is less proactive in ensuring therneffectiveness and robustness of risk mitigating barriers. This becomes critical in deepwater FlowrnAssurance (FA) operations as latent threats, such as hydrate blockages can lead to significant financialrnlosses. With this in mind, a multi-layered Key Performance Indicator (KPI) system was developed andrnimplemented in 2 operating deepwater fields offshore Angola. Continuous use of the tool over a 2-yearrnspan has helped materialize a substantial positive business impact.rnConceptually, the solution sought was three fold: (1) design of a multi-layered KPI system with lowrnlevel PIs used for monitoring and high level KPIs used for reporting, (2) creation of an automation toolrnto minimize data processing time, allowing engineers to concentrate on analysis and (3) engagement ofrnan external contractor with the appropriate technical and organizational capabilities to generate periodicrnreports in a timely manner. Unlike other single-criterion approaches, the FA KPI system is builtrnbottoms-up using clearly defined thresholds while capturing the influence of several contributing factors.rnThese features have proved important in understanding the complexities around FA threats while adaptingrnto an ever-evolving operation. The solution also emphasized transparency, maintainability, scalability andrndocumentation as the ultimate goal is to make a system adaptable not only to a larger local operation butrnalso to other operating regions.rnPeriodic FA KPI reports have been crucial in assessing the current state of the operation. Thernsystematic layered-approach of this system has helped convey to senior management the robustness ofrnboth design and operational protective measures against flow assurance threats at a glance, through simplerngraphical representations, yet allowing engineers to peel off the layers and facilitating the identificationrnof root cause(s) of the different issues. The information gained from this system has also allowed informedrndecisions to be made leading to the introduction of changes in strategies and operating procedures.rnFinally, FA KPI reports have uncovered subtle aspects of the operation, e.g. operator errors in tryingrnto follow overly-complex instructions. The need for sharing this type of information openly, in the rightrncontext, has been recognized as a key lesson learned to improve the way in which deepwater fields arernoperated.
展开▼
