Marine Technology Reporter Blogs - maintenance

Un-coupled riser systems are increasingly being used in deepwater and ultra-deepwater field developments, where harsh environments predominate. Hybrid Riser Towers (HRTs) are recognized to have significant benefits for deepwater riser applications in terms of flow assurance, thermal performance and robustness of layout. This latter issue is especially significant when a large number of risers are considered. An HRT provides the required flexibility by avoiding a crowded layout and allowing a progressive deployment. The concept is applicable to deepwater and ultra-deepwater, and to spread-moored and turret-moored FPSO installations. The Single Hybrid Risers (SHR) in its Single or Pipe-in-Pipe versions…

The importance of increasing the number of maintenance rigs in decreasing accident risks on older production rigs should not be underestimated, and Petrobras will need to speed up their construction, as there is no shortage of old rigs out there.Petrobras is finally increasing its investments on Maintenance and Security Units “Unidades de Manutenção e Segurança” (UMS). The new unit UMS Cidade de Arraial do Cabo, will be supplying logistics support for production rigs at the Campos Basin, its main function will be to increase safety on the rigs through maintenance and renovation in order to increase the life expectancy of these rigs.

Petrobras has lately been dealing with serious workers, syndicate, regulatory agency and judicial concerns over the state of some equipment on a few of its older production platforms. How important is safety anyway?The O&G workers syndicate, “Sindicato dos Petroleiros do Norte Fluminense” (SPNF) has been battling with Petrobras over the state of conservation of some production platforms at the Campos Basin. The main complaints were rusted pipes, usually the ones flowing with water and gas that show advanced stages of rust and also problems with working conditions of various valves and lubrication filters. In some rigs the rust is so pronounced that areas had to be cordoned off as they presented grave danger to workers. This includes stairs, floor grates and safety fences.