New Guidelines for the UK’s oil and gas industry have been published to help boost production.
Oil & Gas UK have released new industry guidelines which have been devised to help boost production levels in the UK’s Continental Shelf (UKCS).
Between 2004 and 2012 producers in the UKCS were tasked with carrying out a sustainable decrease in production efficiency levels, declining from 80% to 60%. Since 2014, these levels have seen a steady growth and it is hoped the new document, ‘Guidelines to Maximise Compression System Efficiency’ will help to increase production efficiency even further.
The primary aim of the publication is to tackle gas compression losses which resulted in over 40MMboe of unplanned production losses during 2015.
The document outlines recommendations and good practice for improving the performance of compression systems, including;
- Compression system maintenance
- Integrity assurance
- Equipment and process condition monitoring
- Training and competency
The document also suggests that firms establish a “lessons learned” process to allow on-going improvements to maintenance procedures. After each maintenance activity an assessment would be carried out, providing real-time responses to any issues which occur.
The guidelines were devised by the Production Efficiency Task Force (PETF), a cross-industry work group facilitated by Oil & Gas UK and are free to Oil & Gas UK members via their Efficiency Hub.
Matt Nicol, Chairman of the Production Efficiency Task Force (PETF) and Operations Director of North Sea Midstream Partners, said: “Since the establishment of the PETF in 2012, industry has improved for a fourth consecutive year and increased production efficiency from 60% to 73% in 2016.”
He added: “Gas systems are a key priority for our group, having been identified as being one of the largest sources of production loss. The Gas Compression Work Group, which produced this new guidance document, is made up of cross-industry expert volunteers who have worked together to share lessons learned and best practices.
We have made great progress but still have more to do to achieve the PETF’s 80% production efficiency target. I encourage all operators to utilise this gas compression best practice guide."