Client: Major International Driller
Industry: Drilling
Asset: Jackup rig
Location: Indonesia
Year: 2019

Challenge

Maintaining the components of a crane is vital to crane usage. To prevent their cranes from breaking down, a major international driller, used to replace all the crane wires across all their rigs annually regardless of its condition.

While this avoids the equipment’s performance from being compromised, several wire ropes that are still in good condition are discarded, which consequently incurs heavy expenses.

Solution

Axess Singapore was commissioned to help optimise the client’s annual spending on the three cranes in one of their rigs in Indonesia. To address the problem, Axess sent a wire-rope specialist team to assess the condition of the components.

Several assessment methods were performed to identify the potential modes of deterioration at any section in the ropes. Guided by a more realistic discard criteria based on international standards, the team was able to pinpoint the ropes that are deemed unsafe for further use and those that could be extended through pressurised lubrication.

All of these were performed by the same personnel performing the crane condition evaluation, which includes detailed inspection of several other critical components of the cranes. By using multi-skilled personnel, Axess has reduced the logistics costs, personnel on board (POB) and carbon emissions.

Results

Keeping the integrity of crane wire rope is critical to mitigating safety hazards, however, automatically discarding all ropes every 12 months can be inefficient, costly, and sometimes unnecessary.

By examining the wire ropes and analysing the findings against various discard criteria, Axess was able to determine which wire ropes are to be retained or discarded.

This condition-based maintenance was a milestone for the client as it saved them both time and money. According to the client, this approach would yield up to 43% cost savings per rig in a six-year period, which demonstrates a new cost-effective way of managing their crane components.