Disrupting the Metallics Domain in Pressure Vessel and Piping Manufacture-Advanced Manufacturing in the Oil and Gas Sector

Abstract

Traditional design and supply chain processes have created well established approaches to the manufacture of metallic engineering products in the Oil and Gas sector. Normative references such as API 6A (Specification for Wellhead and Christmas Tree Equipment) and API 17D (Design and Operation of Subsea Production Systems - Subsea Wellhead and Tree Equipment), as well as national and company-based specifications and requirements (e.g., Brazilian norm NBR 15827 “Industrial Valves for Installations of Exploration, Production, Refining and Transport of Petrol Products - Requirements for Design and Prototype Test” and Chevron specification SSM - PU - 54.02 - A “Qualification Testing of Subsea Equipment”) and the ASME body of pressure vessel code requirements and derived specifications, are largely predicated on traditional design and supply assumptions with respect to metallic materials and components. The further challenge of recovering oil from deepwater basins has generated initiatives such as “Project 20K”, BP’s project to develop, with programme collaborators, the capability to drill, complete, produce and intervene in deepwater reservoirs with pressures of 20,000 psi at the mudline and temperatures up to 350°F (175°C). Here again, design and supply assumptions to date are predicated on traditional design and supply assumptions for metallic materials and components. Notwithstanding the progress being achieved in meeting performance requirements in these and similar programmes, a global paradigm change is underway in respect of the accelerating front of advanced manufacturing. This has been seen especially in the aerospace and aviation sectors, but significantly less so in the Oil and Gas sector. This paper will contribute to addressing this imbalance by presenting work being done by a major subsea equipment supplier to engage with the challenges of this disruptive manufacturing technology. Specifically, the paper will present the holistic approach and results of innovative work being done in the advanced manufacturing of a subsea metallic component using welding arc additive techniques. The work presented will review and evaluate the impact of this manufacturing technology on the core metallic component domains of Metallurgy, Welding Engineering and NDE, utilizing a robotic system for manufacturing the component. The paper directly contributes, therefore, to the emerging roadmap for advanced manufacturing of metallic components in the Oil and Gas sector.