Horizontal production trees installed first time with QuickVision®

Challenge

Woodside is the pioneer of the Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) industry in Australia and the country’s largest natural gas producer. It has a strong focus on technologies that can reduce safety risks and increase the efficiency of operations. The company recognises that production tree designs are becoming smaller and more compact, thanks to new and improved technologies. However, smaller structures are more difficult to install using conventional, bulky positioning sensors. Woodside was keen to see how our QuickVision® solution could help it to remove conventional sensors and reduce manual handling of equipment, to move towards a touchless way of working.

Solution

Subsea structures must be installed with small positioning, heading and attitude tolerances. HXT positioning methods typically rely on heavy and expensive, battery-operated sensors that are mounted to a structure and provide data so that installation tolerances can be met. If a sensor or battery malfunctions, replacing it offshore can be a time-consuming and costly operation.

Significant risk reduction

QuickVision® require no sensors to be mounted to the structure. Risk of personnel having to perform manual handling and lifting operations offshore is eliminated as the solution uses multiple stick-on patterns that can be adhered to the structure during a pre-installation dimensional control survey undertaken onshore or offshore.

• Performing this task outside of the project critical path reduces project complexity and overall risk.

• User-friendly solution
  Adhering five QuickVision® patterns onto Woodside’s two HXTs (on the four faces and underneath), the pattern positions relative to the HXT datum using standard practices was surveyed. Although one pattern is sufficient to track the installation accurately, we use multiple patterns to reduce risk and to view the structure from different angles. Deploying two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) which were equipped with a QuickVision® camera – when combined with the other ROV sensors, the QuickVision® solution can provide accurate positioning data. Little or no surveyor intervention during the HXT installation phase. As patterns came into the camera field of view they were decoded, providing real-time calculations of position, heading, pitch and roll. A live 3D view of the installation can also be created on the Fugro Starfix® survey platform.

• Extremely consistent results
  Our results were extremely consistent and in agreement with the conventional survey sensors used during the first of the two HXT installations. Woodside has since been using our QuickVision® pattern recognition solution as its sole method for accurately determining the HXT

Innovative highlight

Our QuickVision® tracking solution:

• Provided touchless, highly accurate, real-time positioning information that enabled Woodside to achieve first-time-right installation of both HXTs

• Eliminated the need for bulky, expensive, battery-operated sensors

• Increased HSSE performance by reducing offshore lifting and manual handling requirements. Woodside was keen to minimise all personnel exposure offshore, so we deployed one surveyor and one engineer offshore

A major plus point- we provide 24-hour surveyor support from our remote operations centre in Gnangara, Australia.

QuickVision® patterns are lightweight, inexpensive and can be stuck onto the HXT structure in the yard. Our tracking solution reduced:

• The risk to personnel

• The risk of damage to the structure or the ROV

• Overall project risk, as it eliminated the risk of a malfunctioning sensor or battery. By removing sensor installation and retrieval from the project critical path, we saved time and costs

Woodside can use innovative technology to improve project HSSE performance and increase operational efficiency.