New survey to cut costs and improve land rig safety

Lloyd’s Register Energy (LR) has launched an equipment survey it says is a cost-effective solution for assessing the integrity of land rigs, limiting downtime, and improving the safety and environmental impact of drilling programs.

The company said the survey has been developed to reduce inspection costs by up to 50% in light of significant market challenges in the upstream oil and gas market, low oil prices and client mandates to achieve leaner operations.

The equipment survey service includes a refined set of inspection tools focused on safety critical equipment used in drilling operations, covering an assessment of both capital and safety critical drilling equipment, mud systems, BOP and well control equipment, as well as electrical equipment and systems, power plant, safety equipment and the maintenance and spare parts system.

Developed in consultation with industry, the process filters low-risk items, which can reduce the number of equipment items that need to be inspected by at least 35%, and the number of checklist items by up to 60%.

The service can also be used to help companies assess the suitability of a rig for pre-bid or pre-hire, or provide an approach for cost-effective periodic rig health checks, and can demonstrate asset condition to potential financiers or investors.

Teril Smith, senior VP of Lloyd’s Register Energy’s Drilling services division, said the low oil price has restricted the budgets of drill rig operators for third-party services.

“This has resulted in clients being less able to bear the costs of full condition surveys,” said Smith.

“At around half of the cost of a traditional full inspection, our land rig critical equipment survey service is a cost-efficient, fast-turnaround inspection process aimed at assessing drilling capital and safety critical equipment to deliver a snapshot of rig condition and to highlight any major issues for our clients.

“We are also in the final stages of developing the service for jackup rigs and plan to release a similar service for semi-submersible rigs and drillships in the near future.”

Lloyd’s Register Energy has a track record in drilling inspection services with the delivery of more than 9000 rig inspections across the world.

The service is the latest edition in Lloyd’s Register Energy’s growing suite of rig inspection services including the Dropped-objects Survey, Full rig condition survey, People-Systems-Equipment audit, Acceptance survey and Valuation assessment.

Image courtesy of Lloyd’s Register Energy.

Source

Originally published here.