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Australian Energy Producers Journal Australian Energy Producers Journal Society
Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

Risk-based asset performance management in CSG production operations

Peter Carydias A B and James Gregory A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Wood, Level 20, 127 Creek St, Brisbane, Qld 4000, Australia.

B Corresponding author. Email: peter.carydias@woodplc.com

The APPEA Journal 59(2) 776-779 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ18239
Accepted: 28 March 2019   Published: 17 June 2019

Abstract

The coal seam gas (CSG) industry is an asset intensive and highly regulated industry, with each project having a large, complex network of upstream processing facilities. Each major project will drill over 3000 individual wells with around 40 000 wells predicted across the Surat and Bowen basins during the lifetime of these projects. This high asset count poses a challenge for upstream oil and gas operators to meet corporate and legislative requirements, maintain asset integrity of the facilities; while delivering leading operational performance and return on investment in this cost-focused environment. In this paper, we propose that the effective management of these CSG assets requires a conscious cross-disciplinary, whole lifecycle focus on value realisation. We explore three ways that CSG operators can successfully achieve this by transitioning to a risk-based, asset performance management led environment:

1. Safe production and regulatory compliance – the geographic spread of CSG facilities poses significant exposure to driving risk when travelling in remote locations. We discuss how CSG operators can leverage existing data to create fit-for-purpose risk-based inspection strategies.

2. Maximising reliability – CSG consists of a complex network of interconnected reservoirs, process facilities and complex demand-side variability. This requires a fluid approach to the allocation of scarce maintenance planning resources. We discuss how CSG operators can use a risk-based approach to achieve an optimised ‘best value’ outcome.

3. Managing supply-chain cost and quality – we explore how CSG operators can deliver a step-change in integrity, cost-of quality and capital efficiency in their supply chain.

Keywords: asset integrity, coal seam gas, PMO, RBI, RCM, reliability-centred maintenance, reliability engineering, risk-based inspection, risk-based procurement, supply chain management, total quality management.

Peter Carydias is a Senior Engineer in Wood’s Melbourne office. He has over 7 years of experience in asset integrity, reliability engineering and operations management across the oil and gas, petrochemical and automotive sectors. In his role at Wood, he leads engagements across the Asia Pacific to develop asset integrity strategies and systems for various CSG-LNG and conventional oil and gas projects. He holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Monash University, is a Chartered Engineer with Engineers Australia and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (UK) and is currently undertaking a Master of Business Administration with the AGSM (Sydney).

James Gregory is currently the General Manager for Wood’s Specialist Technical Services business on the east coast of Australia. He is also responsible for Wood’s asset integrity business nationally and is based in Brisbane. James has 24 years of professional experience working across a broad range of disciplines, including engineering management, project management, commercial, technical services, quality assurance, operations, maintenance management and asset integrity management. Prior to joining Wood, James held various management positions of increasing responsibility within the steel, power, and oil and gas industries. James undertook his education in the UK where he gained a Bachelor of Engineering and a Masters in Materials Engineering from Swansea University.


References

API (2002). ‘Risk Based Inspection, API Recommended Practice 580.’ (API Publishing Service: Washington DC.)

Carlisle, W. (2012). Coal seam gas: by the numbers, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Available from http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/coal-seam-gas-by-the-numbers [Verified 25 March 2013]

EEMUA (2013). ‘A Guide to Risk-based Procurement: Quality Assurance of Safety-critical Engineering Equipment and Materials’. Publication 224. Edition 1. (The Engineering Equipment and Materials Users’ Association: London, UK)

Moubray, J. (1997). Reliability-Centred Maintenance, 2nd edn. (Butterworth-Heinemann: New York, NY.)

Towler, B., Firouzi, M., Underschultz, J., Rifkin, W., Garnett, A., Schultz, H., Esterle, J., Tyson, S., and Witt, K. (2016). An overview of the coal seam gas developments in Queensland. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 31, 249–271.
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