Case Study: A Successful Start: Qualitative Risk-Based Inspection of a Greenfield Project

Learn how we helped a greenfield petrochemical complex successfully establish a proper integrity program prior to startup.

The Challenge

Greenfield projects, which are undeveloped construction sites, are often designed and built without operations, maintenance, or integrity in mind. However, a petrochemical complex located in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia, had three goals when it came to its new site:

1. It required that a proper integrity program be set up prior to the facility’s startup.
2. Site management needed to ensure that its piping and equipment were in compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Process Safety Management (PSM) standards.
3. The facility wanted to utilize a strategic, risk-based approach to planning inspections, while mitigating the need to manage a highly intensive quantitative risk model.

Pinnacle’s Solution

With these challenges in mind, the operator requested that Pinnacle build a qualitative Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) program for ongoing management. In response, Pinnacle recommended the following strategies for the greenfield project:

• Streamline the use of documentation and data required to build the integrity program by working with the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company to leverage already existing documents.
• Build a qualitative risk-based methodology that employs Recognized and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practices (RAGAGEP) and best-in-class risk assessment applications. Pinnacle also advised setting up accounts for all Process Safety Management (PSM) regulated assets, which minimizes the need for overly-intensive data management that is typical in quantitative risk models.
• Work with the facility remotely to perform baseline Condition Monitoring Location (CML) assignment inspections for the PSM assets.

After presenting its objectives and goals to the operator, Pinnacle implemented the following:

Results

As a result of Pinnacle’s program implementation, a total of 1,598 fixed equipment and associated piping, which is roughly 80 percent of the assets at the facility, were listed as having high consequence, mostly due to high flammability and financial implications upon loss of containment. The consequence distribution is as follows:

In addition, the damage mechanisms that were recognized throughout the facility through the damage/corrosion study are provided:

Based on the consequence evaluation and damage projections, the following risk profiles were produced as a percentage of the overall assets falling in each damage type (mechanical and metallurgical failure not included):

These results were then used to drive strategic inspection plans, per the damage mechanisms and risk category, producing specific inspection methodologies and intervals. In the end, this facility received a foundational integrity program for its fixed equipment and piping, including a qualitative risk-based approach to managing its inspections. The results include: