American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2018 - 52

SpecialReport: Offshore & Subsea Update
into a single, collaborative environment,
the team can make design changes quickly,
manage the estimated cost and schedule,
and more effectively plan work. In conjunction with the new digital platform,
the application functions as the single
"source of truth," and is the basis for creating a digital twin of an "as-designed"
or "as-built" subsea architecture.
Key Advantages

Engineering, procuring, constructing and installing large offshore facilities is a complex
and multifaceted process. Digitizing and standardizing engineering and construction
activities drive down project costs by eliminating legacy systems and simplifying
processes within a single integrated platform that can be leveraged from the point of inception of a project's design to its eventual decommissioning. This photo from a drone
gives a view of the 2,300 metric-ton jacket and four tripods, as well as the 14,500 metricton topsides, for the Pemex Abkatun A2 Bay of Campeche project during fabrication.

of inception to decommissioning, and
uses a true digital twin to optimize engineering, design and management.
Following the design twin created during the EPCI phase, the system enables a
user to create an "operational twin," marrying the physical state with a living, upto-date 3-D model combined with data
and analysis specific to that particular
facility. The operational twin is a digital
twin at a facility scale, compared with
the conventional approach centered on a
piece of equipment.
The overall focus is on project delivery, which is the first phase in the evolution of this advanced platform. It represents a major and welcome change
from the old ways of doing engineering,
and allows contractors to better execute
EPCI projects.
McDermott started using its new Gemini XDTM cloud-based digital platform
on the FEED for subsea umbilicals, risers
and flowlines (SURF) scope and subsea
production system (SPS) with partner
Baker Hughes, a GE company, on BP's
Tortue/Ahmeyim Field development offshore West Africa. The project has the
entire team collaborating fully within
the platform.
Estimated to contain 15 trillion cubic
feet of natural gas, the Tortue/Ahmeyim
production system uses subsea infrastructure tied to a floating production, storage
52 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

and offloading vessel. Once liquids are
removed aboard the FPSO, the export
gas is transported through a pipeline to a
near-shore floating LNG terminal for liquefaction. Discovered by Kosmos Energy,
BP is operator of the project with partners
Kosmos Energy, Petrosen and SMHPM.
The digital platform allows the use of
a wide variety of software applications
to address the unique design requirements
for SURF and SPS projects. An example
is the ability to incorporate FutureOn
Software's xSubsea field optimization
and development tool (FieldAp™)-a
cloud-based application for subsea project
management-into the new digital platform
to digitize and track the complex disparate
elements from today's FEED processes,
which often work with a variety of contractors, vendors and class societies.
FEED processes formerly consisted
of lots of design and planning, revisions
and approval procedures that often were
performed manually using e-mail with
spreadsheets and engineering diagrams.
By combining FieldAp with Gemini XD,
the goal is to make these traditionally
manual processes fully digital.
From subsea field layouts, pipeline
routing and other design aspects, the FieldAp software enables the conceptual and
FEED design process to be performed
online in the cloud environment. By bringing the field layout development together

The key advantages of the new platform
are the ease of transparency and better
collaboration on a project. The approach
uses the 3DEXPERIENCE system from
Dassault Systèmes® to provide a single,
easy-to-use interface for 3-D design,
analysis and simulation in a collaborative,
interactive environment. The customer is
invited to be in the system with the engineering contractor to see the schedule,
track progress and deliverables, and get
all the reporting.
The ability to work collaboratively
with the client in a digital fashion cuts
out all the e-mails back and forth. The
platform enables online collaborative
markup of any documentations such as
drawings, specifications and 3-D models.
Members of the project team can be scattered across many parts of the globe and
still access the latest versions of the documents individually or together.
Implementing a digital and collaborative environment helps expedite the project
life cycle timeline and reduce costs. The
goal is to be more effective and efficient
during the early phases of the project,
automate the FEED processes, and spend
less time and effort so that customers get
their desired results much quicker.
A big part of the success achieved
using the platform has been to implement
a strong training program for new users,
including instructor-led training, training
manuals, work instructions, how-to videos
available online and a project life-cycle
management handbook.
During the initial implementation phase,
McDermott worked closely with Dassault
Systèmes to make sure this first-of-itskind system would be fully configurable,
but not considered "customized." Avoiding
customization while achieving full configurability means the platform can be upgraded easily, and the partnership approach

American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2018

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