RISK BASED INSPECTION STUDY OF

SLAUGHTER GAS PLANTS

PVP 2000 — Seattle, Washington

July 2000

by

Stephen Anderson
Aptech Engineering Services, Inc.
Houston, TX
Telephone: 281-558-3200

Robert Newberry
ALTURA Energy
Telephone: 806-229-9756

ABSTRACT emerging technology used in the assessment and prioritization of risks

Some of the older gas plants built in the late 1940s and 1950s are in pressure equipment and associated hardware. Numerous
approaching the end of their design life. In addition to this, the organizations are in the process of developing codes, standards,
designs of the older plants do not lend themselves to the partial methodologies and processes that can be used for the application of
shutdown and inspection of equipment while the plant remains on-line. RBI methodology in today’s manufacturing facilities. These
This results in lengthy and costly turnarounds. In order to extend their organizations include the American Petroleum Institute (RP 580 and
operating lifetime safely and cost effectively, it is necessary to 581) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
implement the latest inspection and maintenance strategies. This
paper describes the methodology, analysis and results of a Risk Based Until recently, the traditional role of commercial and industrial
Inspection study conducted on a fifty-year-old gas plant located in risk management has been to recognize known hazards to the success
west Texas. The current study followed the procedures and guidelines of plant operations and to support decisions on the types and extent of
given in API 580/581 resource documents and used the latest API insurance coverage to be obtained. Currently some of the important
RBI 98 software to complete the risk analysis. Three hundred pressure losses, accidents, or other types of failures of capital-intensive
vessels and five hundred piping circuits were analyzed in the program. equipment may be only partly insurable. Modern risk assessment and
risk management methods are based on quantitative risk assessment,
Once equipment items had been risk ranked and prioritized, a which provides a basis for anticipating, preventing and mitigating both
comprehensive inspection program was developed for the facility. physical and economic risk. These methods are increasingly viewed
This program was based on the risk ranking for each equipment item, as a vital supplement to insurance coverage. The combination of risk
as well as the suspected damage/corrosion mechanisms. The assessment, active risk management and insurance is usually more
frequency and scope of inspections, as well as appropriate NDE cost-effective than insurance alone, especially for systems involving
techniques, are described in comprehensive inspection plans for each the obvious challenges of aging equipment1.
equipment item.
In addition to this, traditional inspection methods involved
The study has resulted in numerous benefits for the plant, which inspecting equipment when the need or opportunity arose. These
include safety and compliance issues, cost savings, and focused inspections were often unfocused and indiscriminate, resulting in large
inspection plans using the latest NDE technology, and will assist amounts of irrelevant or meaningless data. RBI provides an
management in making informed, defensible operational decisions. opportunity to address both these issues by focusing inspections based
on the risk that each equipment item poses.

INTRODUCTION ALTURA Energy owns several gas plants located in west Texas.
Increasing demand for all forms of energy has dictated how Some of these facilities are approaching the end of their design life,
energy production costs are managed. Worldwide competition has resulting in increased failures and longer more costly turnarounds. In
emphasized the need to reduce production costs so that market share is addition to this, the design of these plants does not lend itself to the
retained. This means that chemical plants are faced with the dilemma partial shutdown and inspection of much of the equipment while the
of “how to produce more product at lower cost.” In addition, plant remains on-line. This has necessitated that management explore
regulatory authorities are insisting on improved Process Safety and implement the latest maintenance and inspection programs. The
Management programs in order to address plant safety and Slaughter Gas Plant requested that Aptech Engineering Services, Inc.
environmental issues. Risk Based Inspection (RBI) methodology is an (APTECH) provide a RBI study at their plant. This study was to focus
on fixed equipment and piping circuits, utilizing the API RBI
software. The objective of the program was to create a safer Review and prioritize all equipment items to be evaluated
workplace at the facility by increasing confidence in the mechanical Review of process flow diagrams (PFD) and/or P&IDs for
integrity of the equipment and decreasing or eliminating the cost the selected unit
associated with lost production incurred during extended shutdowns. Develop equipment list and individual checklist
Develop simplified process sketches with marked up
inventory groups
RISK BASED INSPECTION METHODOLOGY COF process:
RBI philosophy is now being recognized in the USA and — Review and enter process design and operating data
elsewhere as an alternate methodology for the planning and — Interview operating personnel
implementation of inspection and maintenance programs. API and LOF process:
others have recognized this approach as a means of determining
inspection scopes and intervals and the development of a cost-effective — Review industry experience for the unit
inspection and maintenance plan. — Review and evaluate inspection/maintenance
equipment files
The API methodology 2 and software uses a statistical approach to — Review Process Hazards Analysis (PHA) for the unit
determine both the likelihood of failure (LOF) and consequence of — Interview the unit process engineer
failure (COF) for each equipment item. The LOF evaluation uses a — Interview the unit inspector/maintenance engineer
ranking scale that ranges from 1 (lowest LOF) to 5 (highest LOF), — Identify potential damage mechanisms and corrosion
while the COF evaluation uses a scale from A (lowest COF) to E rates
(highest COF). The LOF and COF ratings for each equipment item Generate equipment risk rating
are multiplied to achieve a combined risk ranking. The results are
placed into a risk matrix, which ranks equipment into four risk
categories, high, medium high, medium, and low. This risk ranking is RESULTS
then used for inspection planning purposes. Generally, 10% to 20% of vessels in a process facility are ranked
as high risk. These vessels would then receive the majority of
The API RBI software “API RBI 98, Version 2.4.1” was used to attention in the risk based inspection program. Results from this study
perform a Level III (quantitative) analysis of the fixed equipment and indicate that the majority of risk carried by the Slaughter facility is
the associated piping for the plant. An overview of the quantitative contained in about 30% of the vessels and piping circuits. This
RBI prioritization is shown in Figure 1. The approach begins with the number is higher than the industry average because of the age and
extraction of process, equipment, and other information from the RBI condition of the plant. These results are shown in Figure 2.
database. Various scenarios are then developed to show how leaks
may occur and how they can progress into undesirable events. The Plant results were then broken down further into unit results, to
output from the LOF and COF analysis (described below) is combined indicate which areas on the plant should receive special attention.
in a linear (non-weighted) matrix, which assumes there is equality High risk units in this study included inlet compression (sour service),
between like-ranked elements of LOF and COF. The five-by-five amine regeneration, and the caustic unit. Unit results are shown in
matrix results in ranking values between 1 and 25. This matrix is Figure 3.
partitioned back down to four risk categories for the convenience of
assigning inspection frequencies and providing a practical limit to the A useful tool that is often used to visualize equipment risk
number of ranking levels to consider. The ultimate goal of this effort ranking is a risk matrix. A risk matrix depicts the number of
is to use the risk ranking to prioritize the maintenance and inspection equipment items that fall into each LOF and COF category in a
work load and improve (or lower) the level of risk through increased particular unit. An example of a risk matrix from the present study is
proactive and focused maintenance and inspection of critical shown in Figure 4. It can be seen from Figure 4 that some high risk
equipment. vessels are driven by high consequence values. Typically
consequence issues are not impacted on by an inspection program but
rather by consequence mitigation devices such as alarms, sprinklers,
APPROACH containment dykes, isolation valves, etc.
Prior to ranking the equipment, the initial task was to determine
what equipment items were to be evaluated. After this had been Since it is the objective of the inspection program to impact on
determined, simplified process sketches of the plant were developed. the LOF of equipment items, a critical equipment list was developed
These were drawn and color-coded to facilitate the understanding and for the facility. This list was based on all high risk items that
identification of the different inventory groups in particular units. For contained a high LOF. It was recommended that these vessels receive
a given unit, a single color scheme in a process sequence identifies the priority and are inspected at first opportunity so as to reduce the risk of
extent of the inventory group, i.e., the potential volume that could be each piece of equipment and improve overall plant safety. Additional
released in a worst-case scenario (i.e., rupture of equipment or process points that need to be considered when developing a critical equipment
piping), leading to a catastrophic event. The plant process and list include:
instrument diagrams (P&IDs) were then color-coded accordingly to
highlight inventory groups, equipment items, and process piping prior Do the vessels need an internal inspection, external
to input into the database. Knowledge of industry issues, available inspection or both?
plant-specific documentation, and interviews with site personnel were How will an internal inspection on this vessel impact on
then used to risk rank and prioritize each equipment item using the plant operations, i.e., can the vessel be bypassed etc?
API database. A basic description of the overall process used to
complete the risk ranking is outlined below:
 This work product provided the plant with an initial, prioritized without adverse environmental, safety, and health impacts are critical.
equipment baseline that now serves as a starting point and a solid A risk assessment program will help plant management in meeting
foundation for future refinements. These refinements would be based these objectives.
on the availability and application of additional evidence gained
through inspections, turnarounds, and engineering calculations. The RBI study at the Slaughter Gasoline Plant has highlighted the
benefits that can be obtained from such programs. The study shows
the importance of the practical application of this technology in
DISCUSSION meeting corporate and regulatory goals. This was achieved by
An important aspect of any risk based inspection program is the prioritizing aging equipment items according to their consequence and
practical application of the methodology in a facility. Once equipment LOF. This prioritization has led to the development of critical
has been prioritized it is essential to use this information to the benefit equipment lists which will serve as the basis for future inspection
of maintenance and inspection departments. The risk ranking tells us plans. Specific equipment inspection plans that detail the schedules
which pieces of equipment carry the highest or lowest risk but does and inspection techniques to be used on each vessel, as well as
not tell us how to develop an inspection program. Inspection highlighting the use of new, non-intrusive techniques will provide the
departments want to know how and when to inspect and how to track plant with ongoing guidance. This new prioritized inspection program
inspections over a relatively long period of time. Typically 5, 10, and has resulted in substantial savings for the facility by providing greater
15-year plans are useful for a facility when planning scheduled plant availability and reduced downtime.
maintenance and turnaround activities 3.
Finally, the broader application of these methods will be driven
For this project the risk rank groupings were linked to the scope by the need to do more maintenance as equipment ages, with fewer
and frequency of inspection for each vessel. These definitions are resources and, in particular, less manpower. This will establish the
consistent with those provided for in engineering code documents, need for smart systems that integrate information from many different
such as API 510 and 570. Specific inspection plans were developed sources, to enable maintenance and inspection decisions to be made
for each piece of equipment, detailing operating conditions, materials, effectively and safely.
possible damage mechanisms, appropriate NDE techniques, risk
ranking, and the scope and frequency of inspection. These plans also
document the reasons for making certain selections and form an REFERENCES
important part of a defensible inspection program. 1. E. Merrick, J. Young, A. Parra, G. Egan, “Risk Based
Mechanical Integrity: Its Impact on Environmental, Health, and
The study also recommended the use of advanced external Safety, and Process Safety Management,” Aptech Engineering
inspection methods that could be used to inspect or screen for certain Services, Inc. TP108, 1/98 Edition, Presented at Petro-Safe
internal damage mechanisms. These methods include ultrasonic Conference, Winter 1998, Houston, Texas.
mapping, time of flight diffraction, and pulse eddy current techniques. 2. API 581 “Base Resource Document on RBI,” (Draft) 1998.
This new technology has evolved over the past few years and can now 3. S. Anderson, E Merrick, “Risk Directed Mechanical
be used as a real alternative to the traditional opening up of vessels for Integrity,” Presented at International Chemical and Petroleum Industry
visual inspection. By improving the level of confidence in inspection Inspection Technology, Post Topical Seminar, June 1999, Houston,
results, prioritizing equipment, and conducting comprehensive on-line Texas.
inspections, the operating times between turnarounds can be increased.
In addition to this, it has been estimated by the plant, that turnaround
times can be reduced by almost a third. This will result in substantial
savings for the facility by providing greater plant availability and
reduced downtime.

Finally, an RBI program needs to be managed effectively. As

inspections are conducted on the plant according to the recommended
schedules, inspection reports need to be completed. These reports
should contain a list of damage mechanisms found or excluded,
describe the inspection techniques used, and should calculate future
inspection dates. A tracking system for outstanding repair
recommendations, such as work orders, can also be built into the
reporting system. These reports should then be used to maintain the
RBI program in an evergreen state, with continuous refinements and
updating as the plant state of knowledge improves.

CONCLUSIONS
A significant economic advantage can be obtained by applying
risk-based prioritization strategies to establish the most effective
methods for scheduling and performing maintenance and inspection
activities. A risk assessment program can be developed to assist plant
management in meeting corporate objectives of high reliability and
low-cost operations. In this age of increasing global competition
among producers, programs aimed at lowering production costs
 Enter Data into
RBI Database

Select a Set of Hole Sizes

Estimate likelihood of leak

Estimate consequences

Risk = Likelihood x Consequence

All
consequences NO
completed?

YES
All
NO
scenarios
completed?

YES

Sum risks for all scenarios

Figure 1 — Overview of Quantitative RBI Approach (API R581) (Ref. 2).

 High
Low 7%
24%
Med High
21%

Medium
48%

Figure 2 — Risk Ranking Results for 500 Fixed Equipment Items.

120
100 High
80 Med High
No: Items 60 Medium
40 Low
20
0
Demethanization

Propane Refr.

Amine Reg
Product Storage

Inlet Comp.
Fractionation
Caustic
HMO

E/P Product

Figure 3 — Overview of Unit Risk Ranking Results.

 Consequence Category
Likelihood
Category A B C D E
High Risk

5 1 5 4 2 9 21

4 24 59 38 37 51 209

3 4 14 30 19 14 81

2 15 51 57 74 31 228

1 49 118 119 110 88 484

Low Risk
93 247 248 242 193

High

Medium High

Medium

Low

Figure 4 — Unit Risk Matrix.