Buzzard-FPS Hot Tap

Introduction

A ‘hot tap’ programme was planned to enable our client, BP - Project Endeavour, to accept up to 200,000 bbls a day of hydrocarbon production from EnCana's Buzzard field into the Forties Pipeline System for export to the Kinneil Terminal at Grangemouth. As part of the third party verification of the engineering design, Atkins carried out a wide range of analysis activities.

Client issues

The Forties Pipeline System transports liquids from around 30 offshore fields representing around half of the total production from the entire UK sector of the North Sea.

A high level of assurance was required that the hot tap project would be a success and that Buzzard production could, indeed, be accepted into the system. It was also important to ensure that there was no interruption to normal operation of the Forties Pipeline System.

To enable such assurance to be gained, BP wished to develop a detailed understanding of the hot tap process, both during tapping and post-tapping.

Our solution

A team of experts from Atkins was integrated with the overall project team, comprising staff from BP, the engineering contractors and other consultants. Our experts took specific responsibility for the following tasks:

computational fluid dynamics models development to enable the prediction of:
- thermal behaviour during the hot tap process
- the dynamics of pigging operations at the pipe junction
- the wall shear and implications for wall coatings
- the thermal field under operation for assessment of the collar performance
verification of mechanical stress modelling of pipeline, reinforcement clamp, habitat and over-trawling protection structure
Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) conducted for the drilling machine(s), pre-induction heating equipment, gate valve, and check valve. An assurance review was also conducted on the Vessel's DP System Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
what-if studies, risk assessment, HAZIDS and HAZOPS
dropped object analysis
human factors analysis of the more novel activities on the project, including complex/heavy lifts, hyperbaric welding, cutting/use of hot tap machine.

Key Benefits

The results were integrated into the overall work of the project to provide assurance around design, equipment selection and operational procedures. Client confidence in the hot tap process was greatly improved by the analysis activities undertaken, and the project went ahead.

The hot tap has now been successfully completed.

For more information, contact:

Ramsay Fraser

tel: +44 (0)1224 620202