ESR Technology completes major Risk Based Inspection project for Shell

Safety and reliability specialist, ESR Technology, has successfully completed a major risk based inspection (RBI) analysis of early production facilities on the Majnoon project in southern Iraq. This will help enable safe, environmentally responsible and profitable operations through effective maintenance of the new facilities.

Majnoon is one of the world’s largest oil fields, estimated by the Iraqi government to hold about 38 billion barrels of oil in place. Shell is working to raise production in the coming years from an estimated 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe), and support Iraqi efforts to reach their forecasted production levels within the next decade and beyond.

The RBI analysis covered green- and brownfield early production facilities. ESR Technology’s scope of work covered static equipment, piping/pipelines and pressure relief valves and involved preparing inspection schedules based on the analysis. The analysis results and criticality ratings were recorded in a Shell RBI (S-RBI) database and an S-RBI risk matrix, respectively.

All of ESR Technology’s deliverables were provided on time and on budget and have successfully been incorporated into Shell systems. The aspect of the project to which ESR Technology contributed is now ahead of schedule.

Shell’s Asset Integrity Lead for Majnoon FCP, Colin Kippen, commented: “ESR staff worked extremely well as part of the project team. They were very flexible and worked with us to cope with a changing schedule. We felt that we got a personal touch and that the ESR staff would go out of their way to make sure that we got the service we needed.”

One of the ways that ESR Technology helped the project to progress efficiently was provision of a password-protected SharePoint extranet site. This was used by all team members to expedite the sharing of information and to manage version control as the project progressed.

The Majnoon project is the latest of several major RBI analyses and corrosion risk assessments that ESR Technology have undertaken. Others have related to:

• New Naphtha Storage Tanks on Das Island, Abu Dhabi

• Integrated Gas Development project on Das Island, Abu Dhabi

• Takreer Refinery Project at Ruwais, Abu Dhabi

• Saih Rawl Development, Oman

• Qarn Alam Development, Oman

• Harweel Development, Oman

• Gbaran Ubie project, Nigeria​