Standardization of Flexible Pipes – Where Flexibility Matters Most

Abstract The work presents an unprecedented standardization effort within the flexible pipe industry, that allows flexible pipe manufactures to still use their best design for each case while allowing the projects the flexibility to select pipes from a list of already qualified and ready-to-manufacture pipe structures. Over 2000 km of standardized flexible pipes have been procured by Petrobras with these standardization rules, with over 500 km being purchased annually. First, this work presents the historical evolution of flexible pipe standardization by Petrobras up to the current stage, addressing the interactive process of standardization definition, its challenges, how the company is applying it in brown and green fields, and the benefits that it can bring to the market and oil and gas industry. By looking into the demand of flexible pipes within brown and green fields in development, a large number of functional requirements can be seen: water depth, fluid conditions and topside and equipment interfaces show a great degree of diversity. The impact of each of these functional requirements in the manufacturing and cost of the flexible pipes was evaluated to minimize the cost and the number of design targets, thus creating a fixed menu of pipe types to be selected for each project, reducing procurement, engineering and manufacturing time. This has been a constant process with iterations over time. After several iterations of the optimization process, four groups of target design conditions were created: a set of structures for brown fields, a set of structures for the current developments and two sets for the future projects, to identify qualification efforts and development opportunities. Subsea project engineering is also facilitated by a pre-defined set of pipes. Standardization allows for a given pipe to be used in any give well, with minimum additional engineering, and may rely on automated analysis that consider the database of pre-defined structures. For ageing assets, replacement pipes are also readily available, minimizing downtime when risers reach their end of life. Multiple tasks within the subsea project development process are also easily automated through this list of pre-defined pipes, streamlining the process and accelerating deployment. Standardizing the requirements for projects also allows the market to prepare for and qualify pipes in advance. With the clear target in sight, from Petrobras and from other operators, suppliers may identify the common technological gaps and tackle them with R&D support from the operators. The next projects will follow the same trend.