Remote Witness Testing

A remote approach to flow calibration witness testing during COVID-19

Remote Witness Testing case study

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented conditions in our industry, challenging TechnipFMC and its partners to collaborate in innovate ways. TechnipFMC and its customers were preparing a flow calibration witness test for a 4” MPU™ Series gas ultrasonic flowmeter intended to operate on a FPSO in the Knarr Field in the Norwegian North Sea. As an industry standard, witness tests require the customer travel to a flow lab to witness the flow calibration in person to view the live operation of the meter, the assembly of the metering run and other data in a transparent way.

The team:

Shell: Knarr Field operator (witness)
Altera Infrastructure: Owner of flow meter and FPSO as the “Lease and operating” company on the Knarr field on behalf of Shell (witness)
FORCE Technology – Flow calibration facility
TechnipFMC – Meter supplier and flow measurement specialists

Challenge
Technologies
Solutions
Results

Challenge

Lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

TechnipFMC and its partners were unable to participate in an on-site witness test because of lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At TechnipFMC, employee safety is paramount. We also want to make sure our customers can continue their operations in a safe and responsible way. To accomplish both goals in this challenging environment, we developed a plan of collaboration and innovation to ensure our customer’s success.

Technologies

We must challenge existing practices to push the industry forward.

In times of unpredictability, we must challenge existing practices to push the industry forward. The pandemic restricted our partners from being able to participate in on-site witness testing of their product due to lockdown.

Our team proposed a remotely assisted flow calibration witness test for all participants. The plan would allow our witnesses, Shell and Altera Infrastructure, to participate in the witness test online by viewing the live operation of the meter via the MPU™ user interface and receiving a live visual and audio feed directly from the FORCE Technology flow lab.

After informing the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), all parties agreed to the proposal, and TechnipFMC and FORCE Technology began to collaborate on technical preparations.

The team at our production plant in Ellerbek, Germany, shipped the meter and a set of HMT RealWear glasses to FORCE Technology in Denmark. The Ellerbek Aftermarket team and the specialists at FORCE Technology immediately began working together to install the software and achieve connectivity. By utilizing a headset from RealWear and Librestream On-Sight collaboration software TechnipFMC can offer remote SME (Subject Matter Expert) support.

Solutions

A real-time view of the live operation of the meter was provided.

During the online flow calibration witness test, the parties were connected remotely via video conference directly to the flow lab. All were given a real-time view of the live operation of the meter via the MPU™ user Interface as well as a live feed of the installation at the test lab courtesy of a combination of Librestream On-Sight collaboration software and HMT RealWear glasses, a hands-free headset operated by voice commands.

The benefits:

Cost and time savings
Faster turnaround
Access to real-time data
Direct link to experts
Complete transparency
Digital innovations
Access to recordings for historical records
Full documentation and certificates

Results

A successful, collaborative pilot of an online witness test.

A successful, collaborative pilot of an online witness test that came to fruition in less than seven days, allowing us to keep our promise to our customer. TechnipFMC will improve and expand this pilot experience in order to deliver the same level of exceptional service that customers would receive in person.