Publications

The Emergency Shut Down (ESD) real test is an activity to verify and ensure that the Integrated Control and Safety System (ICSS) equipment is firmly working and functioning properly to activate processing and production equipment shutdown in case of an emergency situation. Since this activity will stop all production and processing equipment in the field (blackout shut down), it is a critical operation and is challenging to carry out the test successfully, efficiently and with smooth post-shutdown recovery. From past experience in the Handil field, many cases indicate the enormous contribution of plant recovery and start up delay due to a failure of ICSS equipment as post-blackout shutdown impact. This delay in plant recovery may lead to a massive production shortfall for an uncontrollable duration. A new manual blackout shutdown approach was implemented as part of an improvement to optimize the yearly planned ESD real test in 2018. The result is very encouraging with reduced failure logged down to 50% and a shorter time of plant recovery compared to the previous event with conventional Hard shutdown (ESD push button) activation. This paper discusses and shares a strategy to be implemented for managing oil and gas plant blackout shut down and maximizing the key role of ICSS to secure the system during black shutdown and facilitate fast recovery for mature oil field facilities.