Managing safety critical equipment and design performance standards in major capital projects ‐ BP mad dog 2 project

Abstract

AbstractFor an offshore facility, identifying safety critical equipment (SCE) and ensuring that they are designed, built, installed, and commissioned based on certain design performance criteria is key to ensuring a safe design. In some parts of the world, such as in the North Sea, regulatory requirements dictate a mandatory third‐party verification of the SCE and their corresponding design performance criteria. In other parts of the world, such as in the Gulf of Mexico, however, there is no such regulatory requirement; it is, therefore, up to the operator to provide assurance that the SCE is designed, built and installed per the design criteria. This paper describes a methodology for ensuring the integrity of SCE implementation and applies the learnings from the BP Mad Dog 2 Project (Argos platform). This methodology provides assurance of the integrity of the SCE during the engineering and construction phases of a project, along with some valuable lessons learned from managing the assurance of the SCE on the project via multiple contractors. This paper discusses the identification of the SCE and provides a brief summary of the development of the relevant design performance criteria for each category of SCE. The paper focuses on a two‐step process to track each design criterion via conducting engineering assurance and then providing field verification, where the design criteria are tested either at the manufacturing site, construction site or through commissioning activities. Some valuable lessons learned from the Mad Dog 2 Project are shared, along with some of the potential pitfalls in managing the assurance process of the SCE design criteria, especially in a complex project organization where multiple contractors are involved.