Asset Reliability and Integrity Management: Increasing the reliability and uptime of assets and deliver improved business performance
May 1, 2018 | By Rehana Begg
—Sponsored article by Operational Excellence in Energy, Chemicals & Resources
Ahead of the Operational Excellence in Energy, Chemicals & Resources Summit, our partner IQPC caught up with Thomas Aas Sæthre, Vice President of Asset Integrity at Oceaneering. In this exclusive interview, Thomas shares his experience in asset integrity and how the evolving approaches to data, reporting and risk profiling are impacting asset integrity management in the new generation of low oil price.
Can you please tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into your role as VP of Integrity Management at Oceaneering?
I have been with my current company since 2009. I have worked in various positions, from operational management to business development and sales. My starting point was actually within maintenance engineering, and I then branched into more inspection and integrity-type work, until I eventually ended up as the Global Business Development Manager for one of the service lines here in asset integrity at Oceaneering.
Can you tell us a little bit about your asset management strategy for 2017 through to 2018?
There’s one element that we think sticks out, and that’s the use of data. We see that previously, because of the vast amounts of data, you couldn’t leverage the underlying knowledge, but you can now use technology that mostly comes from adjacent industries, to apply it in a completely different way. Some will call that big data, but I think that’s wrong. I think this is more about aggregating knowledge on relatively modestly-sized data sets and using the knowledge we already have about how systems work and how they operate, how they fail and how they degrade, to better devise the strategies we need to optimize the return, or the net present value on assets.
How has your approach to asset integrity management changed since the oil price drop?
Since 2014, the most significant change is our approach to clients. We have to take a business case for any project or any initiative we do for them. This has actually been a good thing because it’s enabled us to see the value of our service, and it’s allowed us to engage more with our key clients, to identify areas where they can improve, and also where we can see the value of our service. On the back of that, we can have a much more interesting conversation on compensation and the value of what we do. So it’s moved from an additional resource pool to a products and services business, and we see that trajectory becoming stronger in the years to come.
This interview was conducted in collaboration with the 2018 Operational Excellence in Energy, Chemicals & Resources Summit – taking place in Calgary this June 4-6. This executive-level event will bring together over 250 Maintenance and Reliability professionals and Operations leaders from Canada’s leading energy, chemicals and resources companies to discuss the latest strategies to achieve the next level of efficiency and operational agility.
The world-class speaker lineup includes: Suncor, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell, Veolia, BP, SaskPower, Enbridge, Energy Safety Canada, Toronto Hydro, Cameron LNG, Irving Oil and many more – all presenting at the event and there to show you how to sharpen your competitive edge through asset management excellence.
