Thermal imaging for onshore and offshore condition monitoring

Unlike other oil and gas production companies that subcontract condition monitoring, Marathon Oil is committed to undertaking this valuable work in house. Reliability Offshore Supervisor Lee McFarlane explains: "We see great value in having our own equipment and in training a dedicated team of technicians. It allows us to collate all the data to get maximum return from our reliability programme."

As a result, the company has invested in its own top-of-the-range Flir P-Series thermal imaging camera. During an early training session onboard one of the Brae platforms, the P-Series camera picked up a high potential electrical fault. McFarlane states: "If it had not been identified it would have certainly have impacted on our operations. Within days we were finding faults and anomalies across various applications."

The Marathon Oil reliability teams serve the Brae field, which is in the North Sea, about 150 miles north east of Aberdeen. The field has a mixture of oil and gas condensate reservoirs, the output from which is processed by the three offshore platforms and piped back to the UK.

Advantages offshore

McFarlane continues: "Thermal imaging is massively useful in offshore applications due to the nature of the equipment and systems onboard. As a result we are using the technology for electrical, process and mechanical applications across a range of equipment - anything from inspecting low-voltage panels through to troubleshooting jet engines."

The team monitors faults and takes remedial action when appropriate, and ensures the problem is worked through its Root Cause Analysis (RCA) system so that, if possible, it can be engineered out to prevent any further detrimental effect on operations.

All the main condition monitoring techniques are used to monitor the health of the platforms so that maintenance resources can be focused according to severity or criticality of the fault. Thermal imaging is considered to be one of the most important and Marathon Oil's Flir P-Series camera will therefore be used on all three of the companies Brae platforms, as well as for onshore inspection too.

Investment in the camera is particularly timely, as Marathon Oil continues with its transition from preventative maintenance to a condition-based maintenance strategy. McFarlane comments; "It is allowing us to plan and schedule man hours, spare part lead times and equipment downtime. These are important issues, especially in the current economic climate. This proactive approach means we get no unwelcome surprises!"