Page 23: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Jan/Feb 2024)

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INTERVIEW MATT TREMBLAY, ABS

We have people all over the world that work on these and operate these vessels more safely. We are trying to ap- projects, distributed through dozens of different offces. ply it in a number of ways to existing structures, but more

ABS is the only class society with a fully staffed, fully so we're seeing it built into the new assets. A great example: capable engineering offce in Brazil, and we've got large there are strain gauges in the hull that measure the load engineering offces in Singapore, Shanghai and Houston that the hull is subjected to, allowing us to measure and that support the local clients in the offshore space and calculate remaining fatigue life via sensors within the hull. specifcally the FPSO space. They have capabilities to do here's new R&D that we're doing on remote inspection everything from your bread-and-butter work to high-end technology, remote gauging technology, measuring the technical analysis, where we're [deploying] many PhDs thickness of the remaining steel. We're working on a proj- and supercomputers. We set ourselves up that way to be ect with a national oil company where we're permanently able to make local decisions, support local customers, and installing sensors inside one of the tanks, then instead of make decisions quickly. having to get in and mechanically scan each of these loca- tions, you just take the data off of these RFID tag stickers

What are the technology trends in the floating that tells you what the remaining thicknesses of the steel. production sector that are challenging industry? Last, but certainly not least, the biggest thing is change

Broadly speaking, the technology trends are in three around sustainability and its impact on the design of FP- buckets: SOs. The application of technologies like carbon capture • Energy Transition to the power generation package, and a technology called • Digitalization, and combined cycle where you're using the heat from the pow- • Asset Integrity of Aging Fleet er generation system as a heat source that you may need within the hydrocarbon production system, so you're not

Taking the last one frst, in asset integrity the main chal- having to make this energy twice. lenge is aging assets. There's a lot of really old steel out Also, we’re looking at how we’re actually powering the there; it's been 40 years since their keel laying date for 25% FPSO. The newest designs we're working with today are of the FPSOs; it’s been more than 25 years since their keel working toward electrifcation of the larger asset, and ide- laying date for 50% of the FPSO feet. ally someday that power’s coming from off the asset.

A challenge with older FPSOs is getting all of the in- Traditionally, FPSOs use gas turbines as the main source spections done, as the hardest part of doing the inspection of power, with a number of diesel engines that supply from an operator's perspective is cleaning the tank so you power loads across the asset. Those diesel engines are com- can get in and look at it. That, in turn, is impacting future ing out and more high voltage power distribution is being design, and one of the design changes that's happening used. From an effciency perspective, from a CO2 emis- most recently is full double bottoms, where the framing sions perspective, the bigger the engine is, the less CO2 of the structure is in the double bottom, not in the cargo it emits per kilowatt. So having fve or six really big gas tank. This gives you a smooth side and a smooth bottom; turbines versus three or four medium-sized gas turbines it actually looks almost like a gas carrier tank now. It's easi- and a bunch of diesel engines is emitting less CO2 per er to clean because now you don't need a crew with shovels kilowatt. One national oil company, for example, is fore- and fve-gallon buckets shoveling the muck out of the bot- casting a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions based on this tom between the stiffeners. new electrifcation project that they're working on … it’s

Digitalization also comes back to asset integrity. The not contracted yet, but it’s coming. digitization and our understanding of the asset condition [Other interesting developments include developments is allowing us to forecast maintenance needs, equipment around the use of renewable energy and alternative fuels to failures, allowing us to use machine learning and AI tools supplement power]. The Norwegians are doing some really to analyze that condition data and help us make better good things right now, powering some of their offshore plans, more effcient plans, safer plans around the mainte- production assets from land. If you can operate a green nance. So applying these new big data, AI-type tools to the thermo powerplant on land and then run that electricity maintenance and condition data, we're now able to track out to the offshore production, all of the sudden you've electronically and to build more effcient plans to maintain got new oil with a zero CO2 cost to produce.

january/february 2024 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 23