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The ten most common reasons

why asset integrity

implementations fail

Dr. Steven W. CiaraldiVelosi Asset Integrity Ltd, May 2012,

www.oilandgasfundamentals.com

This article is brought to you as part of a unique new

online learning resource for the global oil and gas

business aimed at educating the industry on the

essentials of asset integrity management. Find out

more by visitingwww.oilandgasfundamentals.com.

Compare the approachesof the top ten operatingcompanies around the world to tackling the asset

integrity challenge, and you will find many

similarities. Whether in the models used to identify

risks or the approaches used to manage them.

Industry thinking has evolved to a point where most

agree on the fundamental elements of how to

approach integrity management.

However, look closer and you might find some

further commonalities. The reasons why asset

integrity management strategies often fail to achieve

the results expected of them are also often the same

from operator to operator.

So what are these reasons, and how can you ensure

you are building them into your implementation

strategy to ensure you arent set to repeat them? In

this article, Velosis Stephen Ciaraldi, a 30 year BP

veteran, will walk you through the top 10 reasons

why integrity management implementations fail and

give you some valuable advice to ensure your

integrity programme to avoid the same fate.

Reason one: attempting to tackle integrity

in isolation

Perhaps the most common reasons for asset integrity

strategies to fail is integrity specialists trying to do

integrity in isolation. Integrity is not a subject which

thrives in a silo it requires the entire business to be

aware, on board, and supporting a unified effort. But

not only can integrity not success if standing alone in

order to succeed, it needs to be truly aligned with the

business. People need to know how integrity affects

their day to day job, they need to be encouraged,

cajoled, instructed and incentivised to ensure that

they are working together. Different groups have

different goals, not caring about others goals, and

areas where people dont like to be tasked with doing

others work is a demonstration of a silo mentality. If

that type of silo mentality exists, there will be

problems in implementing integrity management.

Reason two: losing sight of process, people

and plant

It may seem obvious, but an asset integrity plan is a

extremely complex undertaking with many moving

parts and even more stakeholders involved in its

successful execution. Recognising that there are

many reasons why asset integrity implementations

dont achieve the results expected of them is an

important starting point. Problems arent confined to

one particular area of an integrity implementation

and can just as easily emerge in either the process,

the people of the plant components which make up

an integrated integrity management programme.

Focus too narrowly on one area, and you can be sure

problems will emerge elsewhere. The key to

implementation is the effective working together of

these three components, and ensuring that checks

and balances exist at every stage to help you.

Reason three: not addressing the

competition between productivity and

integrity

Companies failing to properly budget for and book

production deferrals are also key reasons animplementation can fall down. It has been known for

individuals to go on site and say its not my job to

maximise productionits my job to assure integrity

of facilities and to implement the asset integrity

requirements which naturally brings them into

conflict with those whose job it is to maximise

production. In practice, an enormous amount of

resistance is often faced by integrity specialists from

people whose primary goal is to maximise production

and who are going to get less money in their bonus

because you are asking to do work on their facility.

Having that production loss booked in advance and

everyone agreeing is a really important obstacle to

overcome. Proactive companies incentive their staff

on operational safety as well as asset productivity.

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Reason four: failing to monitor progress

once an implementation plan is underway

Many implementations fail because their architects

fail to effectively monitor their progress once the

implementation moves from theory to reality. No

plan is perfect, and once you finalise an integrity plan

and it may change within an hour. So it is important

to prepare for the fact that nothing goes to plan, so

constant monitoring will be required to ensure your

plan stays on track. Successful integrity strategies are

always putting corrective actions in place to ensure

you achieve at least your primary objective. If you

dont monitor, therefore, you will not achieve your

objective. Expect it, plan for it, you will need to flex to

achieve your plan. One of the techniques which can

be applied to help here is multiple-level KPI

monitoring using a wide range of KPIs. When things

go red, corrective actions need to be placed.

Reason five: failing to realise that asset

integrity management never actually ends

We all know that asset integrity is a cradle to grave

process, right? Of course we do, and yet in too many

cases, asset integrity advisors can approach a project

with a mind-set of having been brought into an

operation to carry out some integrity work, and once

that work has been done and that asset integrityadvisor has been allocated elsewhere, a perception

remains that that job will then be finished and go

away. It really doesnt work that way. Asset integrity

requires constant monitoring and constant vigilance

even when especially when responsibility shifts

from one team to another. Related to this, in cases

where things are going well, it is very easy for a

dangerous level of complacency to creep in. People

dont worry and people start to accept risks that

shouldnt be accepted. Its a continuous process and

needs constant vigilance. Never forget that.

Reason six: a lack of understanding of the

economics of integrity management

The reality in which we operate is such that in an

ageing facility requires increasing levels of

investment in asset integrity, even though production

levels and therefore profitability levels might be

declining. Facilities get older, more water is

produced, and asset integrity concerns rise. This

might sound like common sense to the integrity

specialists, but many non-technical people

including those in decision-making positions like to

maintain constant lifting costs in their field

development planning. In short: the need for

integrity rises as the barrels produced decline. It is

important that non-technical people involved in

planning understand that integrity implementation

costs are not production related, they are age-related

and need to be factored in accordingly to avoid

corner-cutting later on down the line.

Reason seven: a lack of an integrity

awareness culture

The best definition of culture I have seen describes it

as how we behave when no ones looking. Creating

a culture of integrity awareness is often cited as the

number one objective for an asset integrity

implementation. This, however, is much easier said

than done and is actually among the most common

reasons integrity rollouts fail. So how do we go about

building a robust integrity culture? First, people need

to know what asset integrity is. Training is required in

the fundamentals of the subject and how they apply

to the business they are operating in. Contractors

should be included in this training too. Leaders must

push the integrity agenda. If leaders push, people will

follow. Finally, you need to encourage honesty. If

staff are afraid to report a hydrocarbon leak and fear

it may affect their performance rank or pay, then you

have a problem.

Reason eight: failing to effectively prioritise

what needs to be done

An essential element of implementing a successful

asset integrity strategy is making sure you are doing

the right work in the right place at the right time. Too

many integrity strategies fail to prioritise the work

that needs to be done based on a clear

understanding of where the most serious risk lies,

instead, they prioritise based on financial

considerations or manpower availability. In a large

asset, your integrity strategy will be complex, will

contain a large number of moving parts, and will

require lots of manpower, so plan ahead, dont

underestimate the time and effort required for this,

start early and make multiple passes at each problem

you are tackling. Sometimes its not practical to do

major upgrades which require production to be

affected so planning on-the-job operational integrity

activities is the easier route to take, but never forget

that people still make mistakes.

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Reason nine: not effectively balancing the

experience levels of site staff

In every operating scenario you can imagine, you

would expect new people to be part of the operating

unit, but too many new faces or raw recruits working

on the same project at any one time runs the risk of

integrity failure it is important to make sure there is

a balance. Added to this, effective management of

contractors is key as well. Too many people focus

only on their own staff and dont focus enough

attention on the other parties involved in operating

their asset. The final manpower lesson to bear in

mind is that once the programme is agreed and the

funding is approved, the time to get the team

together is typically longer than you ever imagine.

Good engineers may not be integrity experts and

dedicated integrity teams take a long time to

assemble and get in place bear this in mind and

start early to avoid repeating this common mistake.

Reason ten: Failing to get outside

perspectives

Weve all experienced situations where we have been

so consumed by a particular problem that we can fail

to see potential solutions which others with the

benefit of a different perspective might recognise

immediately. The same applies with an asset integrityimplementation, and that is why this represents the

final reason that many fail to achieve their objectives.

Furthermore, because implementations are such

dynamic activities, there can often seem to be no

time to take a strategic view of where you are. For

this reason, a tactical review defined as a periodic

assessment of a particular issue is key to carry out

on a regular basis ideally with the input of an

external party who can view the problem you are so

absorbed in with an independent eye. An annual

integrity review can help you see trends that you

wouldnt see if you just looked at the metrics day by

day.

Dr. Stephen W. Ciaraldi is a Senior

Integrity Management Specialist with

Velosi Asset Integrity, and is a 30-year

BP veteran with integrity experience

on five continents.

Stephen leads an online course on the

Fundamentals of Asset Integrity Implementation,

more details of which can be found at:

www.oilandgasfundamentals.com/courses/asset-integrity.

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