The decrease in oil price has been a hot topic over recent years and has directly affected oil companies and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of systems used for oil production (subsea assets in particular). Numerous technologies, methodologies, processes and tools are being developed to support lifecycle cost reductions for subsea assets and to maximize the overall profits for the industry.  Prognostic and Health Management (PHM) is a technology that can assess and predict the remaining useful life (RUL) of a system, enabling operations and maintenance strategies to be better planned. One goal of PHM is to lower the cost for a system during the operational period by reducing the downtime cost and risk of unanticipated failures. Traditionally, failure was accepted in this industry sector through the incorporation of functional safety features of critical components. Unfortunately, a fail-safe strategy has significant downtime costs associated with it. However, introduction of new technology (e.g. PHM) requires a business case to demonstrate the potential benefits. At present there is a lack of literature on the topic of PHM cost-benefit-risk analysis for subsea production systems. This paper will provide a background of lifecycle cost and the potential cost savings PHM can deliver in the subsea application will be provided. The paper will also expand on four categories of factors contributing to the cost benefit analysis as well as a case study to illustrate the potential cost savings and the side-effects from PHM integration on subsea equipment.

The design of a subsea production system needs to ensure high reliability and safety figures since these assets will be deployed in harsh environments for extended periods of time. Maintenance costs associated with these systems represent a significant percentage of the total operational expenditure incurred by an Oil & Gas operator. Traditional reactive maintenance approaches applied on subsea equipment are starting to drop in their efficiency as degradation occurs on such systems resulting in prolonged downtime periods. Prognostics and Health Management is a relatively new topic and other industry sectors have demonstrated that it can provide a solution for reducing maintenance costs and improving systems' overall availability. This paper presents a prognostic and health management development process suitable for subsea production systems.