Development of Key Performance Indicators for Offshore Structural Integrity

Abstract

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are widely used to assess performance against targets, whether these be technical, environmental or financial. Offshore KPIs are used by both duty holders and regulators to assess the reliability of equipment and systems, often they relate to safety systems and the regulator’s interest relates to such systems. The most obvious KPIs include number of fatalities, fatal accident rate, lost time injury frequency and total recordable incident rate, as well as hydrocarbon release incident rates associated with maintaining safety. Many of the “non-headline” KPIs relate to systems that could be critical in the event of an accident and these are of great importance. However KPIs have not yet been developed for the performance of the offshore structural system. Performance standards are a requirement of current UK offshore legislation, although these again are more normally associated with fire and explosion. Since many offshore installations are now in the ageing phase performance measures are increasingly important. This paper described the background to developing KPIs for offshore structures, relating to aspects which are important for both safety and asset integrity. This has been achieved based on a hazard approach, which includes extreme weather, fatigue, corrosion and accidental damage. KPI’s need to be measurable and this aspect has been incorporated in their development. It is proposed that these KPIs will have significant use in providing a basis for measuring structural performance, particularly for ageing installations where a case for life extension needs to be made.