Das, S., Bahrain Petroleum Co. (Bapco)
Technological advances have allowed predictive maintenance (i.e., condition-based maintenance) to overtake preventive maintenance in plant operations. “Look, listen and feel (LLF)” is a condition monitoring technique that improves the reliability of equipment and machinery in manifolds.
Most centrifugal pump designs include replaceable rotating wear rings on the impeller (impeller wear rings) and stationary wear rings inside the casing (case wear rings). Although pump wear rings are simple components, they can have profound impacts on pump reliability, efficiency and safety. These wear rings serve three purposes:
Low-flow, high-head pumping requirements in refining and petrochemical plants make up less than 2% of the total pump population. This minor percentage is creating significant reliability concerns, which result in low mean-time between failures (MTBF), as well as high maintenance costs.
Ethane production in North America (NA) has expanded dramatically with the onset of shale production and associated hydraulic fracturing. Ethane concentrations in fractured shale gas are typically 10% or higher vs. a traditional range of 4%–7% in associated gas.
Past corrosion incidents provide insight into the causes of corrosion and the preventive actions required to protect plant equipment and reduce costly plant downtime.
As crude oil prices decline, consumption of petroleum fuels is increasing.
In a recent conversation with a “pump veteran,” we explored his 33 yr of experience with pump original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) from 1984–1997 and with a widely known non-OEM (1997–2017).
In the oil and gas sector, fractionation is a vital part of every plant.
After a process engineer has completed preliminary documents such as process flow diagrams, material and energy balance, piping and instrumentation diagrams, equipment data sheets, process control philosophies, identifications of the hazardous nature of raw materials, chemicals, byproducts and final products, process equipment layout drawings (plans and elevations), unit plot plans, etc., these documents are issued to other disciplines to carry out further engineering.
Some process safety incidents occur as the result of simultaneous or sequential occurrences of operations or activities that interfere or clash with each other.