Cleaning and Flushing

(Champion: Shell) - September 2018

As part of decommissioning and without harming the environment, process systems must be cleaned to facilitate safe follow-on activities, such as transportation, personnel access and recycling. For hydrocarbon systems, this has typically been done by flushing water through a process system. Hazardous systems, which are then subsequently accessed or have containment broken, may then require further cleaning by high pressure methods and venting to make them safe. Verification of cleanliness is undertaken against standards, by sampling flushing fluids and by risk assessment if containment is required to be broken or if systems require personnel access.

This opportunity assumed the continuing requirement to clean process systems in-situ. Although proven solutions already exist to flush and clean a large proportion of field systems, this opportunity looked for propositions to address the full scope of subsea complex infrastructure, access systems, and FPSO offshore cleaning initiatives.