Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Weeks 9 and 11. 

 It’s all “normal jogging” at the moment here in the Dyce office, with the following keeping me ticking over:

[Magnus] Glycol pressure relief system.  Hugh (Programme Manager) and I worked through the Appraise and Select gates for this, and I’ve now kicked off the Define phase of the project with the WG PSN design house in Runcorn.  Their piping, process and structural engineers will all work on the specified design piping design, whilst further contracting out the installation of Passive Fire Protection (PFP) to the glycol reboiler and heat exchangers.  This new design must be executed during next year’s turnaround (TAR) window that starts 1 June 2013.  During the TAR the whole platform is closed down, costing £m per day in lost revenue. 

The pressure relief system is fairly simple in itself; a change from a 1” pipe to a 2” pipe.  From the P&IDs (Piping and Instrument Diagrams) there is even a spare 2” nozzle to tap into, but looking at a photo (below) it’s not immediately clear where this is, and we may have to tap into the bridle instead.  If I ever get offshore I may be able to have a look…

Figure 1. Glycol storage tank (below) and reboiler (above).

As the SPA for this, I ensure that WG PSN aren’t wasting time (£) producing nugatory work throughout the phase, and also grip them when things slow down.  I report to Hugh and liaise with the TAR team – and do my bit to stop them from putting their noses in too much!

[Magnus] Installation of DBBs on the Condensate Pumps.

Just as the glycol pressure relief is required because it is currently ‘unsafe’ (if there was a fire, it’s calculated that the pressure increase in the boilers would be well above the design pressure and lead to catastrophic failure), the conde pumps are not SIRPS (Safe Isolation and Reinstatement of Plant) compliant, meaning that the pumps (the two conde pumps operate in parallel) cannot be taken off line without a complete train outage.  So… some new valves need adding – simples!  And it does seem pretty simple really!  Because the installation will be conducted during the TAR, the trains will be fully bled and the new valves installed in place of the old ones.  The new double block and bleed valves will allow for work to be done on the plant whilst the other part of the system remains leve

Is it really that easy?  Of course not.  The P&IDs show that the pipework is made of Incoloy 825, and so any new valves must be of the same material.  Are these available off the shelf?  Almost undoubtedly not, and so are a long lead item.  One of my main deliverables at the kickoff meeting was to find the lead time for these – it might be that they are sourced and the pipework designed around them if the lead time is that long!

ETAP ALQ.

With the Appraise resting on a survey (recce), one may be mistaken that this would be a priority and a 6-week waiver given for my visit.  But alas, the Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) hasn’t granted this.  Cue a few terse e-mails from John (Programme Manager), and now we are just waiting for them to assess their priorities.  Still, no rest for Warner – I’m digging further into the proposal and meeting the Renewals team leader tomorrow to see what “their plan” is.  It may be that they’re either tackling it from another aspect (floatel) and we can tie in together for the business case.  From a Plans point of view, all they really want from me is the broad brush of how much it will cost to install and operate.  Wait out…

Magnus boom rests. 

This is one of Ish’s I’ll be running with whilst he’s on Phase Four, and as far as I can see, currently consists of looking at big bits of steel meccanno which are being fabricated at a nearby workshop.  Once complete they will be stuck on to some raised bolts on the platform’s floor and allow the cranes’ booms to rest upon them.  Difficulties will involve ensuring they are manufactured to a tolerance of 5mm, and then lifting these 30-40m hunks of steel into place and bolting/welding them together.  At some point in the next month I expect to have a formal handover of this project.

More work please

I’ve asked for more and will hopefully be getting some pipelines to work on.  These are very good from an engineering side of things, and also (so John tells me) need to get done soon, which means I may get to see some of my work through to completion!  We are looking at installation of these in November, so will be a fast turnaround.

Week 10 – Island Hopping (Scottish style)

Whist the South was suffering rain over the Jubilee Week, Liz and I took to the Inner Hebrides and had a week of uninterrupted sunshine!  Did some good scrambling and walking, the occasional sea swim (not long til the big race) and then finished the holidays with the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon.  I got back to work bronzed and rejuvenated (Liz got back to work shattered…)

Exploiting civvies…

If there’s one thing civvies do that the military don’t, its sponsor you!  Maybe it’s because we’re all earning less money than they are, or maybe also because we find others’ challenges less impressive as we are all legends anyway, I don’t know, but the support I’ve had for my latest challenge (2.4 mile swim in a sea loch followed by a 125 mile cycle and culminating in a mountain marathon) is huge – complete strangers donating £50 and sending me e-mails of support!  Check out the donations here: www.justgiving.com/chriswarner