By Clara Nwachukwu

One of the messages brought by the TOTAL Group to the just concluded conference and exhibition of the Society for Petroleum Engineers, SPE, is the need to enhance pipelines integrity through a robust repairs system.

The group also used one of its assets, Amor Field, to demonstrate the best ways to optimise a production facility.

In a presentation, “Developing a Robust Emergency Pipeline Repair System in Nigeria,” the duo of Efemena Iyede, and Mobolaji Akinola, of Total E&P Nigeria Ltd, noted that pipelines integrity can fail due to a number of reasons.

According to them, pipelines failures can happen during construction/installation, life of the field, minor/major damage, localised corrosion, weld defect, metallurgical defect, rupture, leakage, or sabotage/vandalism.

However, they argued that a number of oil and gas facilities have been shut on account of the latter, resulting in huge production and revenue losses.

These made them to conclude that “A robust Emergency Pipelines Response System, EPRS strategy prepares you to ‘PRO-ACT’ and reduce losses caused by lengthy response time.”

Consequently, Iyede and Akinola called for the development of EPRS early in a project life cycle during design phase, while urging the industry to develop EPRS codes & standards, and to collaborate with major pipelines operators, government agencies, & service contractors.

They also called for the consolidation of database of pipeline failures & repair solutions/processes for future lessons as well as encouraging more local content participation in EPRS related activities.

Using the Amor Field as case study to underscore the essence of “Optimisation of Topside Facilities in a Mature Field to Eliminate Water Hammer Effects,” Shola Onuwaje, said the field justified a safe, cheaper solution vis-à-vis a $5million solution to mitigate effects of water hammer.

He said that re-assessment of identified water hammer risk predicated on declined production rate resulted to a number of things. These include fit for purpose, and a better implementable, cost effective, and safe operation than initially proposed.

He argued that the water hammer effect offered an alternative solution for facility optimisation and modification to curb operational issue.