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The (RMA)
Technique
Reversionary Mode Analysis (RMA) was originally developed
for aerospace & defense projects that require fault-tolerant
design. It takes a structured, systematic review of each subsystem
in turn, identifying potential failure modes and their effects.
For oil & gas projects, the consequences of those failures
are evaluated using field economics, so that the risks can
quantified and ranked in ‘Risk-Dollars’. The analysis
then allows resource to be focussed on correcting the most
serious effects.
The Proneta team has substantial experience of engineering
processes applied in the aerospace and electronics industries.
This includes particular emphasis on ensuring the reliability
and availability of the final system, by analysis of the system
design while there is still the opportunity to revise and
optimise it. A unique benefit of the RMA process is its ability
to combine engineering analysis with economic modelling.
In those industries it is required that a major system continues
to provide useful functionality despite having incurred substantial
damage or failure of component parts. This demand has given
rise to an established science in optimising system designs
for fault-tolerance, to deliver maximum availability to the
end-user. One powerful tool for this purpose is Reversionary
Mode Analysis (RMA), which we propose to use in this study.
A brief overview was published by the European
Space Agency. A more useful introduction to RMA published
by the SPE describes the
method in the form of a six-step approach, shown on the right
as Figure 1.
| RMA takes a structured, systematic review of each part
of the system and each process step in turn, identifying
the likely types of damage or failure in operation according
to the operational environment local to that subsystem.
Its failure modes are identified, and then the consequences
are worked through the system to establish the real effect
that the user will experience. If unacceptable effects
are indicated, the analysis provides the pointers to where
changes must be made to correct the problem. |
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The application of RMA specifically to intelligent wells
is covered by two further papers published by the SPE.
For each of the options, we establish the life-cycle plan,
summarising all the phases of construction and production,
and identifying their constituent elements in detail. We then
undertake a failure mode analysis on the construction processes
and production systems, identifying causes, effects, probabilities
and consequences. That data is loaded into the RMA software,
along with the required economic parameters extracted from
the Feasibility Study Economics. To confirm the validity of
the analysis, the estimated probabilities of failure will
be checked with alternative sources.
Experience has shown that RMA does meet both the risk/reliability
assessment objectives typical of the design phase of an intelligent
well completion system, and provide the results in a form
that enabled easy understanding by non-reliability engineers.
Proneta has completed several RMA studies of different well
design options for operating companies. These have incorporated
well designs ranging from the simplest conventional wells
through Intelligent Wells, to highly complex TAML Level-6 types,
for both gas and oil fields. These studies have been judged
by our clients as very successful. Those clients tell us that
RMA is the only way they know for providing a risk analysis
with results that are traceable back to the specific engineering
details that cause unacceptable risks.
Proneta continues to develop this technique, and the proprietary
software tools to facilitate its application. For instance,
we have introduced the use of field economics for evaluating
consequences of failure, which allows us to provide quantitative
results in ‘Risk-Dollars’.
More about RMA...
Overview / The Benefits
/ The Results
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