MALAMPAYA OIL & GAS
OFFSHORE PLATFORM
The Shell Malampaya offshore natural oil and gas production facility is one of the most significant industrial energy projects in the Philippines today. Malampaya fuels three natural gas-fired power stations with a total generating capacity of 2,700 megawatts to provide 30% of the country’s energy needs. (www.shell.com.ph)
The offshore platform uses state-of-the-art deep water technology and is comprised of subsea facilities and a 503 km underwater pipeline connecting to an onshore processing gas plant. In 2015, Shell had plans for the construction and installation of a new platform, which will help maximize and sustain the recovery of gas from the reservoir, and to maintain the nation’s power needs.
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Throughout the course of it’s operations and maintenance over the past 10 years, there were numerous modifications and major equipment upgrades of such as the heavy wall vessels, separators, pipes, compressors, gas turbines, and other related components. Although modifications and changes were recorded, the central as-built model was not consistently updated. The future plans to construct the new interconnecting platform made it increasingly important to have accurate and updated as-built plans.
View of the Malampaya Phase 2 and Phase 3. The original platform measures approximately 40m x 90m and comprised of 3 decks: Cellar deck, Production deck, and the Weather deck.
In 2011, Shell together with their maintenance engineering services contractor, Transfield Services Worley Parsons (TSWP), engaged Digiscript Philippines Inc. (Digiscript) to conduct a full 3D Laser Scan as-built of the entire platform.
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With the use of the Leica ScanStation C10 laser scanner, Digiscript’s survey team was able to efficiently capture the entire platform with all the complexities and confined spaces. By the end of the survey, over 800 scans were captured and registered to from an accurate and complete 3D pointlcoud model. One of Digiscript's key deliverables was to provide a comprehensive clash detection report between the 3D Laser scan data and the existing design model. The existing PDMS (Plant Design and Management System) model was brought into Leica Cyclone MODEL and compared with the recently captured 3D pointcloud model. By doing so, Digiscript was able to create a visual report model from which a “clash” or inconsistencies detection was done. This resulted in a report that allowed Shell and TSWP a clear view of where the original design model deviated from the existing as-is conditions of the facility. The completeness of the 3D pointlcoud data and report allowed for various mission critical functions to be completed on time and within budget.
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Some of the uses of the data included:
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Determining clearances for route planning during pipe and equipment replacement
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Quality Assurance of fabricated pipes, vessels, or equipment prior to installation.
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Virtual 360 site walkthrough using Leica Truview
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Updating of PDMS model using 3D pointcloud as validation
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