I3P HPHT Checklist for Design Minimum Acceptance Criteria

Abstract

Abstract For decades the design methodology for the development of conventional (surface) and unconventional (subsea) drilling and completion equipment has been utilizing very conservative (non-optimized) and inconsistent approaches. As oil and gas technology advances into deepwater and high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) environments, the demands on the equipment's design integrity, efficiency, optimization, and safety have significantly increased, since failures and the associated recovery processes could be very expensive. It is the original equipment manufacturer's (OEM) responsibility to establish high confidence that the operator's assets and businesses are safe, sustainable, and dependable. The oil and gas industry uses applicable American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) standards, American Petroleum Institute (API) standards, operator's functional specification, and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) regulation as guidance for product design and development, and their acceptance criteria define the limits placed on characteristics of material, products, and services. Material selection/testing, design verification analysis, and design validation testing establish what standards are used to evaluate every aspect of the equipment design, testing, and manufacturing. The purpose of the BSEE guidance document is to present conditions under which approval may be granted for the use of well completion and well control equipment that is capable of performing in a deepwater and/or HPHT environment. The API 17TR8 serves as a nonmandatory technical report guideline for HPHT equipment, specifically for subsea applications. API standards were intended to adopt the design methodology from the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC), Section VIII, Divisions 2 and 3, which has been used in the oil and gas industry since the 15th edition of API Specification 6A published in 1986. For example, the original API 6A adopted a design stress intensity of two-thirds of the minimum specified yield strength and a membrane stress intensity of 83% of the minimum specified yield strength. API 6X/17D and 16A adopted their own acceptance design criteria independent of each other and ASME VIII, Division 2. The independent third party (I3P) consequently decided to develop an I3P HPHT Checklist for the Design Minimum Acceptance Criteria to clarify those issues by identifying any deficiencies existing among API standards and to provide a methodology consistent with ASME VIII, Divisions 2 and 3, 2013.