DNV GL to Standardise Subsea Documentation

DNV GL has launched a Joint Industry Project (JIP) to standardise sub-sea documentation. This long-awaited initiative has been welcomed by the industry, with broad participation from operators, EPC(I) contractors and suppliers representing all parts of the supply chain.

A typical sub-sea project can involve more than 10,000 documents over a span of 30 years. To develop, maintain and verify the quality, security, accuracy and availability of documentation, operators, contractors and suppliers often spend millions of dollars on document management, technical review and information management systems.

Consequently, the lack of standardisation can lead to misunderstandings, a reduction in quality and difficulty in handling approvals, distribution and availability. This further leads to increasing project lead-times and costs for both customers and suppliers.

There are multiple sub-sea projects, both in Norway and elsewhere, that would benefit from an industry standard for sub-sea documentation. As well as improving documentation quality and assisting with on-time delivery, a standard should save suppliers, contractors and operators valuable engineering hours by reducing the need to define and review technical documents.

“The aim of this broad industry collaboration initiated by DNV GL and the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association is to develop a standardized set of sub-sea system documents for designing, approving, manufacturing, verifying, operating and maintaining equipment,” said JIP project manager Jarl S. Magnusson of DNV GL – Oil & Gas.

The collaboration originated from the KonKraft Åm report (2010), which sought options to increase hydrocarbon recovery on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The proposal to standardise documentation arose from one of several projects developed by the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association to drive standardisation within the sub-sea arena.

The outcome of this JIP will be a DNV GL Recommended Practice (RP) aimed at establishing industry guidelines and recommendations required to document typical sub-sea products and systems, with an associated minimum set of documentation. Initially, the RP will provide a method for industry variations and options for add-on documentation. It will be linked to current sources of industry standards and practices.

Jan Ragnvald Torsvik, Lead Engineer of Life Cycle Information at Statoil and co-chairman of this JIP, said: “Statoil is participating in this JIP because the RP has the potential to deliver a significant degree of standardisation, efficiency and increased quality. This will be implemented in Statoil through updates of our technical requirements.”

[mappress]
May 21, 2014