Tue, 27 June, 2023
We are launching a new Joint Industry Project related to the inspection of subsea sensors that allow for the control and monitoring of subsea oil and gas assets.
Our Industrial Members are invited to joint the project, ‘Development of a Qualification Methodology for Volumetric Inspection of Pressurised Welds in Subsea Sensors,’ in order to gain access to the results of the work.
Sensors are used within subsea oil and gas production to provide health metric information to topside control stations. The critical data provided by these sensors help control the well infrastructure and manage the assets in the subsea oil and gas field.
The sensors are typically mounted on a ‘Christmas Tree’ that is fixed to a wellhead, where they can monitor the production of the well, including parameters such as temperature flow and pressure for effective reservoir management.
The safety and reliability of these sensors is important and surface inspection techniques as well as helium leak and pressure testing are used both during and post manufacture. However, there is a growing requirement to perform volumetric inspection using either radiography or ultrasonic testing for wellhead and Christmas Tree equipment.
Current standards required of subsea sensor providers are unsuitable for the often small, autogenous welds that are used for subsea instruments due to a lack of access for ultrasonic inspection or the inhibiting of radiographic inspection by large or complex material paths.
This new project will produce best practice guidelines for the industrial application of a cost effective volumetric inspection of sub-size welds within subsea sensors, with the aim of being included in an international standard that can be widely accepted by manufacturers of instruments, integrators, oil companies and regulatory bodies.
You can find out more details of this upcoming project, including how you can get involved, here.