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SUBPRO Subsea Production and Processing
New control and safety philosophy
Conduct
case
studies
Identify
future
risks
Eliminate
topside
based req.
a significant interest from industry partners on
this topic. One issue already identified during the
interaction is the opportunity to learn from recent
subsea processing installations, like Åsgard sub-
sea compression. During the first half year of the
project, industry partners have contributed with
specific input in dedicated workshops and reports,
both on understanding challenges but also on
framing conditions for future field developments.
This insight will be used to propose, with support
from industry, some preliminary (and conceptual)
alternative architectures. These alternatives will
be discussed, iterated, and evaluated against
regulatory requirements and subsea risk condi-
tions. An outcome of the project is new knowledge
and new principles that may be further adapted
into new or existing standards on subsea design
and operation.
Project manager, Prof.
Mary Ann Lundteigen
Postdoc, HyungJu Kim
Co-supervisor,
Associate Prof. Christian
Holden,
New safety and control philosophy
The main objective in this project is to develop
a new control and safety philosophy for subsea
systems. The new philosophy aims to overcome
some of the challenges of implementing such
systems with basis in standards developed for
topside conditions, and to ensure that the subsea
safety risks and subsea operating environment are
fully captured. It is a need to reduce complexity of
systems and their interaction, while maintaining a
high integrity of critical functions.
The first year of the project focuses on detailing
the challenges of existing subsea control and
safety systems, identifying subsea risks associat-
ed with different subsea field architectures and lo-
cations, and investigating industry practise on the
application of risk acceptance criteria for safety
and asset protection functions. We have seen
Figure 7. Key steps towards new philosophy
Figure 8. Main tasks of subproject
Study risksand
acceptancecriteria in
subsea systems
Study controland
safetyphilosophyof
current subsea system
Identify challengesof
currentphilosophy
Studyphilosophiesof
other industriesand
new theories/models
Developanew control
and safetyphilosophy
Conduct case studies
Propose thenew
philosophy for
adaptionby standards
MainTasks
Many of the future developments in subsea require adaption of new technology and new ways of operation.
Safe operation is paramount, but more focus is placed on achieving high safety and availability level with
more cost efficient solutions. Topside design principles and philosophies are often modified for subsea use
(to ensure well proven design), but future field development will require tailor-made solutions for subsea
conditions. Reliability, availability, maintenance and safety (RAMS) are four important properties of systems
that need to be specified and included in the evaluation of design alternatives. For the RAMS research area,
the overall aim is to develop new knowledge, methods and tools to support decision-making about RAMS in
design as well as in operation. In the first three years of SUBPRO, the focus is on developing:
• A new philosophy for subsea safety and control systems
• A new framework and models to support the specification and evaluation of subsea solutions in an early design phase
• New models and methods for prognostics-based maintenance planning of subsea systems
RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, MAINTENANCE
AND SAFETY (RAMS)
Research area manager,
Prof. Mary Ann Lundteigen