Safeguarding the integrity of Liquefied Natural Gas infrastructure assets with digitization: Case of a domestic gas metering upgrade project

Abstract

Low productivity levels have contributed to the cost and schedule overruns that have plagued the construction of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) processing facilities in Australia. Traditional paper based methods such as Computer-Aided-Design have been relied upon to create, manage, store and retrieve information throughout each phase of a project's lifecycle for Electrical, Instrumentation and Control Systems (EICS). As a result of utilizing CAD to document (e.g., specifications, and ‘as-builts’) ECIS, the propensity for errors, omissions and information redundancy to occur, significantly increases. Attending to issues of this nature during the construction of a facility can result in scope changes, losses in productivity, and increases in project costs. Using a case study, this paper examines the nature of the documentation produced to up-grade a domestic gas metering system that formed an integral part of a LNG plant's production process. Issues hindering productivity during the production of the documentation, communication and information exchanges, and change management involved with the deliver of the EICS are presented. In addressing problems identified in the case study, it is suggested that EICS for an LNG plant should be digitized (i.e process of converting information into a digital format) using a Systems Information Model to ensure effective and efficient production and management of information throughout its lifecycle, and contribute towards safeguarding the assets integrity.