Critical issues:

• Canyon Express consists of three subsea fields in water depths ranging from 6,400 feet to 7,200 feet in the Gulf of Mexico, and was the world’s deepest development when put on stream
• All are marginal fields and not economical to exploit on their own
• When moving into deeper water, the economic penalty for production interruptions becomes more significant
• The uncertainty related to "unforeseen" events increases as prototype and novel technology is introduced into a new operating environment
• Unplanned repairs and interventions, due to failures, could easily jeopardise the economy of the project

Solutions:

• DNV Consulting performed a detailed reliability assessment of the production system
• An availability and intervention model was also developed, to quantitatively assess the financial consequences associated with equipment failures and operational interventions over the field life

Value delivered:

• The model provided an in-depth insight of opportunities and threats, and allowed sound economic decisions to be made
• Shortcomings that may otherwise have gone unnoticed were proactively identified
• The quantitative reliability models allowed the operators to perform cost-benefit evaluations of different concepts and solutions and optimise system design
• The reliability considerations led to the identification of enhancement opportunities during the conceptual and design phases rather than later in the development phase, where the cost of change is much higher