Asset Integrity & Reliability Services

BoilerRock is an independent consulting group that specializes in reliability and mechanical integrity improvements services to clients in the oil and gas industry.

Category: Process Safety Management

Invest & Learn- 2020

Posted by on in Asset Integrity, Condition Monitoring, Corrosion, Inspection, Learning, Maintenance, Process Safety Management, Reliability, TAR, TurnaroundsLeave a comment

2020 is has been quite a year so far and likely to end with continued change and uncertainty.  This will be a very different blog than normal – kind of like 2020!  As I travel to different sites doing mechanical integrity or TAR assessments, they are very similar in that everyone is extremely busy and very focused on the day to day work or approaching shutdown.  This is all excellent and required to meet the goals of the department, the plant, and the company.  However, we also must take the time to invest in yourself. 

We invest an extreme amount of time and effort into our jobs, but we must also take the time to focus on ourselves.  We need to invest in ourselves, our development, and our continuous learning.  In today’s internet world the ability to learn new things is right at our figure tips.  Having the company send you to a class or seminar is great but we do not need to wait for that opportunity, or it could be another 2020 when none of us are traveling anyway.  I spent a good portion of my free time in 2020 taking online training on several topics including- Cyclohexane production, Cathodic Protection refresher, and other industry related topic + a couple of personal items on Stock investing and the Golf swing.  My experience with online learning has been a very positive one and only expect this type of learning to continue to improve.  There are companies providing online learning of any number of process safety, corrosion, API standards and about any other industry related topic you would like to learn more about. 

We need to take a little time out of our busy weeks to invest in our own learning.  This is not easy with the demands of the job, but I’m very confident if you discuss your plan to spend a little time on the internet learning a new work skill with your Supervisor, they will likely be very supportive.

For most of us the Corporation is our paycheck, perceived security and in many cases the next promotion or pay increase.  However, we must always remember that if things get ugly financially with the corporation, you are on your own!  Please realize I am not saying that the corporation/company are a bad thing (I was able to enjoy a wonderful and fulfilling career with a good one), but we cannot ignore our own learning.  Have you ever worked with someone that was a know-it-all?  Pretty annoying in my opinion… I came across a quote recently that I would recommend for every organization, individual and company.  “We need to be a “Learn-it-all”, not a Know-it-all”

Actions to Take:

1)   What do I need to learn to improve?  At work/At home/My overall knowledge

2)   Schedule time for learning – small increments will work wonders, but make it happen!

3)   Be Positive and invest in yourself!

Corrosion- Do you know where to look?

Posted by on in Asset Integrity, Condition Monitoring, Corrosion, Inspection, Maintenance, Process Safety Management, Reliability, Risk Based Inspection- RBI, UncategorizedLeave a comment

When I travel to different sites reviewing mechanical integrity and inspection programs, the facilities normally have some type of corrosion monitoring program. These programs vary widely from mature programs that have been in place for years and my include a risk-based inspection (RBI) approach and several special emphasis projects as well, or the program may only do inspections and corrosion monitoring because OSHA requires them to have a program. Most of the organizations are somewhere in the middle and do their best to find issues before they potentially become major incidents, but the problem with many types of corrosion is that it’s difficult to find. So how can we improve our odds of finding the corrosion?

A corrosion review of your facility will help you understand what types of damages mechanisms/types of corrosion you have in each part of your plant. It will help your team understand what type of corrosion that they are looking for and the most likely places that type of corrosion will occur. Additionally, with the right team you will also know the best inspection techniques to use to find the corrosion. Without a corrosion study, you may have thousands of corrosion monitoring locations that your organization is managing but are they doing you any good? If you have a damage mechanism that is a localized corrosion mechanism and you are simply doing spot ultrasonic testing (UT) on that equipment, your likelihood of finding the corrosion prior to a leak is extremely low. Spot UT will help you understand your general corrosion that might be occurring, but if you have a localized or cracking corrosion mechanism you are wasting your time and money. The corrosion review will make you smarter on Where and How to look for the potential corrosion issues and improve your corrosion monitoring program immensely.

How do I complete a corrosion review for my plant? The American Petroleum Institute (API) has published a document API-970 that will give you an excellent road map to completing a corrosion study and developing corrosion control documents for your organization. The main requirement for completing a good corrosion review is to have the proper cross-functional team available to complete the study. Key team members must include:

• Corrosion Engineer familiar with the process. This will likely be an outside contractor as most companies have limited corrosion specialist and if they do, they are normally extremely busy.
• Process Engineer familiar with the facility being reviewed.
• Inspection
• Operations
• Maintenance
• Engineering

The management of a corrosion monitoring program can be very challenging simply due to the large volume of data that being generated and can be difficult to ‘see the forest through the trees’ sometimes. With a better understanding of the corrosion types likely to occur in your plant, your ability to focus your efforts in the right places will be very beneficial.

Actions to Take:
1) Has our plant completed a corrosion study?
YES,
a. Find the study and review it personally and with your team.
b. Have the recommendations from the study been implemented into your plant’s corrosion monitoring program?
NO,
c. Obtain an estimate for completing a corrosion study and weigh the benefits, risks and value to your plant.
d. Ask the question- Do we know where to look for corrosion in our plant?

API Standards- Risk-based Inspection (API-580) Overview

Posted by on in Asset Integrity, Inspection, Process Safety Management, Reliability, Risk Based Inspection- RBI, UncategorizedLeave a comment

In my last blog I discussed the wealth of information available in the American Petroleum Institute (API) Standards/Recommended Practices. Today, I’m going to give a brief review of the Risk-based Inspection (RBI) API-580. With the everyday workload for most people in industry it is difficult to set aside much time for reading a standard or recommended practice even if it’s important to your job. I will give you the highlights of the standard and enable you determine if you would benefit for additional reading of the document.

The RBI document provides guidance on developing of an RBI program for fixed equipment and piping in a refinery, chemical, or related hydrocarbon processing facilities. If your facility is already using an RBI program as a tool for determine inspection plans and timing of inspection you are likely familiar with the basics. The basic of RBI is that you determine the Probability of Failure (POF) and Consequence of Failure (COF), which in turn give you an overall risk. The overall risk will allow you focus your inspection resources and funds to the equipment with the highest overall risk. If your new to the industry or have never used RBI, the first few sections of 580 gives an excellent overview of Risk-based Inspection. There are several different risk matrixes used throughout the industry, but they all follow the same basic logic of increasing risk as POF and COF increases. See the attached blog picture being an example of a risk matrix.

The major benefit of reviewing the API-580 document in detail is the step by step approach used to assisting in developing a good program and some of the limitations and pitfalls when implementing a RBI program. The document includes a number of common pitfalls (Section 17) when implementing a program which include issues with Planning, Data and Information Collection, Damage Mechanism/Failure Modes, Accessing POF/COF, Risk Determination and Management, and Risk Management with Inspection Activities.

If you follow the document’s directions and guidance it will walk you through the various steps of developing an RBI program. A few of those steps are outlined in detail in the following sections of the 580 document:

Section 6: Planning the RBI Assessment
Section 7: Data and Information Collection
Section 8: Damage Mechanisms and Failure Modes
Section 9: Access POF
Section 10: Assessing COF
Section 11: Risk Determination, Assessment, and Management
Section 12: Risk Management with Inspection Activities
Section 14: Reassessment and Updating RBI Assessments

If you have an existing RBI program that is not meeting your expectations, a review of the pitfalls and reassessment sections could be very beneficial for you and your facility. Additionally, there are training sessions as well as an API certification program available for API-580 if you have a need/desire to fully understand the Risk-based Inspection methodology and requirements.

Actions to Take:
1) Does our plant have an RBI program? Is the RBI program meeting the expectations of you and your facility?
2) Consider that you or one of your employees present an overview of the API-580 document or review a section of the document during a weekly meeting.
3) Are the API standards available to you? If not, discuss with your supervisor.
4) Consider attending an API event or training.

 

API Standards- What can I Learn?

Posted by on in Asset Integrity, Inspection, Process Safety Management, Reliability, Rotating Equipment, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I attended an American Petroleum Institute (API) Equipment Standards meeting recently and was impressed with the number of years of experience and knowledge in the room as different issues were being discussed.  This thought also occurred to me–“How many people are really using this wealth of information?” With the everyday workload for most people in industry it is difficult to set aside much time for reading a standard or recommended practice even if its important to your job. However, if you consider the knowledge and potential learning available to you and your team in these documents its worth taking note; particularly if your new to industry.

Several API documents were written in response to a major industry incidents and were put in place to prevent similar incidents– IF followed. However, if we don’t know what is in the document then how do we learn from our mistakes. Unfortunately, that continues to be a common theme in the oil and gas industry that we don’t do a good job of learning from each other’s mistakes. I think this is vitally important as many highly experienced employees reach retirement age and turn over the reigns to the younger less experienced employees.

If you look at most of the smaller companies that don’t have the inhouse subject matter experts available to them, the knowledge related to any topic must be learn the hard way through mistakes. However, a much better and more proactive approach is to learn via training or self-teaching. The following list is a small sample of API documents/subjects available on Fixed Equipment and Rotating Equipment. The overall list of API documents available for learning in a vast range of industry topics is much larger.

  • API 510 – Pressure Vessel Inspection Code
  • API 570 – Piping Inspection Code
  • API RP 571 – Damage Mechanisms Affecting Fixed Equipment
  • API RP 572 – Inspection of Pressure Vessels
  • API RP 573 – Inspection of Fired Boilers and Heaters
  • API RP 574 – Inspection Practices for Piping System Components
  • API RP 575 – Inspection of Atmospheric and Low-Pressure Storage Tanks
  • API RP 576 – Inspection of Pressure Relieving Devices
  • API RP 577 – Welding Inspection and Metallurgy
  • API RP 578 – Material Verification Program for New and Existing Alloy Piping
  • API RP 579-1 – Recommended Practice for Fitness-For-Service
  • API RP 580 – Risk-Based Inspection
  • API RP 582 – Supplementary Welding Guidelines
  • API Std 653 – Standard for Tank Inspection, Repair, Alteration, and Reconstruction
  • API Std 610 – Centrifugal Pumps
  • API Std 611 – General Purpose Steam Turbines
  • API Std 613 – Special Purpose Gear Units for Petroleum, Chemical and Gas Industry
  • API Std 614 – Lubrication, Shaft-sealing, and Control-oil Systems and Auxiliaries
  • API Std 616 – Gas Turbines for the Petroleum, Chemical and Gas Industry Services
  • API Std 617 – Axial and Centrifugal Compressors and Expander-compressors
  • API Std 618 – Reciprocating Compressors for Petroleum, Chemical, and Gas Industry
  • API Std 619 – Rotary-type Positive Displacement Compressors
  • API Std 673 – Centrifugal Fans for Petroleum, Chemical, and Gas Industry Services
  • API Std 674 – Positive Displacement Pumps-Reciprocating
  • API Std 675 – Positive Displacement Pumps-Controlled Volume
  • API Std 676 – Positive Displacement Pumps-Rotary
  • API Std 677 – General-purpose Gear Units for Petroleum, Chemical and Gas Industry
  • API Std 681 – Liquid Ring Vacuum Pumps and Compressors
  • API Std 682 – Pumps-Shaft Sealing Systems for Centrifugal and Rotary Pumps
  • API RP 687 – Recommended Practice for Rotor Repair

If you have a problem or a topic that you’re in need of additional information, there is likely an API document available related to the subject. Although difficult from a time management perspective, we must take the time for learning for ourselves and our employees.

Actions to Take:
1)  Complete a quick review the API documents above and identify where additional knowledge might be warranted.
2)  Do you have access to the API standard? If not, discuss with your supervisor.
3)  Consider that you or one of your employees present an overview of an API document or small section of a document for their area during a weekly meeting. The employee and those present will all learn from this type of exercise.
4)  Consider attending an API event.

Dave Bryan Joins BoilerRock

Posted by on in Asset Integrity, Inspection, Process Safety Management, ReliabilityLeave a comment

Dave Bryan joins BoilerRock as Partner and Technical Director after completing 36 years with Marathon Oil. He brings Engineering, Maintenance and Reliability expertise from both the upstream and downstream sectors of the Oil and Gas industry. After graduating from Purdue University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Dave worked as a project engineer in Marathon’s Pipe Line and Refining organizations. He went on to roles as Refinery Inspection Supervisor, Corporate Fixed Equipment Subject Matter Expert and Refinery Maintenance Manager.

After 26 years in the downstream, Dave transferred to the Marathon’s upstream organization where he served as corporate Fixed Equipment Integrity Manager and Technical Authority/Reliability Manager for World Wide Production. Dave has extensive experience working with diverse cultures, applying engineering fundamentals and maintenance best practices. He is recognized for developing sustainable fit-for-purpose strategies and processes to improve facility reliability.

Initiatives that Dave can help clients with include:
• Mechanical Integrity Program Assessments/Audits
• Reliability & Integrity Strategy Effectiveness
• Turnaround Scope Challenges/Readiness Reviews
• Turnaround Planning & Management
• Risk-based Assessments & Applications
• PSM & API 751 (HF) Audits
• Root Cause Analysis/Incident Investigations
• Maintenance Optimization & Benchmarking
• Project Support (Fixed Equipment Engineering & QA/QC)

Dave currently holds API 510 and 570 certifications (previously held API 653 and NBIC) and is active on several API committees. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Indiana and Illinois. Dave’s been active for over 25 years with industry organizations focused on pressure equipment inspection and integrity.