Asset Integrity Management : Challenges, planning and implementations

Abstract

The emergence of asset integrity management (ATM) in the petroleum industry has been encouraged by the demand for a safer and more sustainable workplace with respect to health, safety, environment, value generation and reduced risks. However, despite the current ATM development, literature shows that ATM practices in organizations still often fail and in troubled times some organizations may choose to rearrange the priorities of ATM activities, while in reality the integrity of these installations needs to be maintained at all times, regardless of the fluctuating market situation. This study is divided into three consecutive phases that built the entire study. The first phase of the study was performed to identify and map the existing research approach in ATM. The study also proposed a structured framework as a guideline for designing ATM research. The second phase identifies the gaps between the theory and practices of ATM. The focus is to identify various challenges in volatile market conditions and how organizations can continuously ensure the safety and integrity of their offshore facilities. The study is continued by the third phase that addresses the organizational challenges identified in the second phase. The purpose is to continually develop ATM practices in organizations. The three main challenges identified are the organizational challenges, human resources challenges, and the knowledge management and information technology (TT) challenges. When addressing the area of knowledge management and TT, the study discussed the survey findings and proposed the use of service providers to tackle the challenges in this area. The study also addressed the organizational challenges by proposing structured planning and implementation of ATM in petroleum projects and in the organizational level. For petroleum projects, the operational readiness and assurance (ORA) is proposed as a solution to establish the ATM foundation before operations phase. This study elaborates the requirements for ORA planning and implementations, including the main elements in ORA, organizational structure, manpower and tasks planning and also ORA work structure. For the organizational level, the survey findings were developed to improve a structured approach in planning and implementing ATM in the organizational context. Different approaches from respondents were also elaborated to give insights of how different petroleum organizations are planning and implementing ATM.