Out of sight , "Out of Mind"

Following on from my article relating to the perils of "CUI" I thought it may be a poignant time to broach the subject of " Human Intervention" in relation to helping create corrosion threats and added risks that are not readily visible nor completely "Inspect-able".

Time I think to discuss the role of " Wraps and Clamps" in the industry and before all of the representatives from the various reputable brands of "composite and clamp" manufacturing jump onto their keyboards to condemn me this is not an article that questions the products themselves, it is an article addressing the potential pit falls in the hands of the end users . I have worked extensively with some excellent suppliers, applicators of composite products and clamp manufacturers ( far too many for my liking ) "tongue in cheek" and there is a significant place in the oil and gas industry for their products , but there is also a more important need for operators to know the products "limitations" and to follow through with risk assessments, engineering reviews, management of change , ongoing Integrity checks and ultimate repair of any temporary repair method.......which unfortunately is the hard part that more times than not falls over.

As I mentioned in a previous article whether we like it or not there is a potential conflict between production and Mechanical Integrity which we need to accept is real and not pretend that it does not exist....which means that when you report a significant defect outside of its integrity limits it gets documented in full , engineered and risk assessed as part of your company MOC procedures, and a work request raised for its repair back to full integrity in accordance with the assigned ranking and timescale. But !...it does not stop there as you then have to continually raise the awareness and track the progress of this defect( work order) whilst updating senior management until the risk has been removed otherwise you may see the wolves gather at your door when something goes wrong.

How many times have you reported a defect and the first questions back from any department who are not directly involved with integrity program are " Can we fix it without shutting down ?" "Can we wrap or clamp it until we get an opportunity to repair?" " We have a shutdown planned next year, can we fix it then ?" All valid questions in their own right but all questions that are designed to help the production department and ones that could potentially compromise an Integrity Team leader from doing his job correctly if not managed carefully. In my experience I have learnt that there are four types of people in this industry: "There are those that know, those that do not know, those who do not know that they do not know and those who don't want to know" .....the latter two being the dangerous species in our industry.

Ok ! lets look at an example as sharing caring and more importantly ..learning !. The picture above is something I came across where a company had two through wall defects appear in a 6" low pressure (Sour Field) flare line and it would be fair to say the remainder of the line was not looking too great either to the point where they decided to composite wrap extensive lengths of the line either side of the holes. So what about the holes ?? they obviously had a significant "active" corrosion threat and they should have been aware that flare lines are notoriously low flow and prone to liquid drop out forming very corrosive acid solutions that trigger high corrosion rates in this type of service....should they not ?

The fix ?- How about they put a 6" mechanical clamp over the holes , wrap both sides for approximately 15 m and the job is done ?? I struggled to find any MOC or engineering review for this repair but someone had at least realized that the clamp was very heavy and the line was extremely vulnerable so they installed and hanging scaffold " clamp support" to help take the weight before stripping the scaffold as it was business as usual ...quick fix ..job done keep operating ..!.

The clamp was visually monitored from a distance given its location , and even though projection radiography would be on the extremes of any capability for the wrapped sections given the diameter and wall thickness there was no possible credible way to check for accelerated corrosion under either the wrap or the heavy wall clamp ...so what was the plan to monitor the line until replacement and how high did this risk rank in the system ? Basically there was no plan in place, and the line had a major release nearly one year later.

As the clamp was placed over a through wall defect it provided a new habitat for the already corrosive acidic solution to attack... so now the corrosion rates where escalating from both sides of the piping. The clamp provided a temporary solution to a problem and some would say it served its purpose and helped continued production , but the fact that you had a major breakdown in effective deficiency management to the point where you have a large uncontrolled gas release that under different circumstances could have proven catastrophic we would consider this a fail ! The sections of line did get replaced at this point you will be glad to hear.

I did get a chance to ask the Integrity Team Leader who was in charge during that period what his thought process was when installing that particular type of clamp on a through wall defect in those circumstances , and where the deficiency management process fell short to the point that that there was not even a work order or engineering pack for the replacement some one year after installation? I was told that he was unaware of the installation of the clamp and it must have been installed when he was away on business at the time !! They say "Ignorance is Bliss".

The photo's above illustrate that corrosion does not "miraculously" go dormant once you apply a composite wrap , and as we have discussed nor when you apply a clamp so it is imperative that if temporary repairs are undertaken there must be a robust deficiency management process in place which addresses the ongoing risks until completely mitigated . I have not met an Integrity leader who has not had push back from production management in relation to integrity findings and access to equipment for inspection purposes , it goes with the territory as does starting out with a certain naivety in a belief that all departments are equally as interested in resolving integrity issues as you are ...myself included my experience has taught me that " familiarity breeds contempt" and management will take all of the rope they can get from the Integrity department until something goes wrong ..... then some of them may want to hang you with it when they feel the pressure from corporate who have been woken from their slumber due to seeing a production blip on their screen.

The last Radio-graph photo (above) is a good illustration of a few key points if you look close .... as it shows where we found someone had already had a go at installing a non certified temporary repair system of their own under the cover of darkness no doubt ( using jubilee clips and a rubber strip) prior to the composite wrap being installed. It also shows the wrap in position which has some voids in between the composite layers which means it was incorrectly applied namely due to the fact that the applicator has gone over the jubilee clips and there has not been any surface preparation nor even a correct contour for them. The other interesting point is that you can clearly see the corrosion wall loss and the cause of it which in this case is internal debris ( under deposit ) so a multitude of factors in one graph. How many of you spotted them all ?

There are some people in the industry for one reason or another tend to look towards composite wraps as a primary repair method before they have even considered or explored the full repair option , noting that these people are seldom around when things go wrong. The above lines are large bore 316 SS carrying rich amine with a high concentration of H2S and they developed leaks withing three months of operation ( Chloride Attack due to incorrect hydro testing and draining procedures.) By memory 12 composite wraps were installed as Production and Management decreed a warranty shutdown was looming and the plan was to replace the sections and address the issue , but the shutdown came and the shutdown went ..... alas the wraps remained ( does this sound familiar ?) So how are they being inspected and monitored .....my previous article stated that "History tells us that we are not very good at learning from History" so I think we will hear more about this one day.

I am not going to mention the methods of installing composite wraps or clamps, they are tried and tested systems and have professionals who do the installation and certification so my only suggestion is to select a reputable brand/company and work with them closely ( I can offer advice only on request).Remember that any composite wrap repair should be certified ( in written form from the applicator) for both the defect size, potential growth, temperature , pressure , life cycle and service .

Everyone out there with Riser clamps located in your asset should ensure that you have a robust program in place for removing the clamps and inspecting the riser as I have come across many with impingement corrosion as the above photographs illustrate so do not believe that it is only temporary repair clamps that can put you at risk .People tend to concentrate on the easy to see metal to metal contact points , pipe supports, U bolts etc but forget about the hard to access areas and big ticket items .Remember my previous article " corrosion will take all of the encouragement you can give it " so start planning a program that covers all your jigsaw pieces.

The above photograph covers the third type of people in this industry as mentioned earlier which are "the people who do not know that they do not know " A gas leak in an extremely sour 3" line on the underside of the pipe sat on a support and someone has applied a fast setting putty as a fix it.....only over the areas they can access ?? Totally unacceptable in any facility at any time !

In summary , the industry has an obligation to learn from its mistakes and I do not confess to have all the answers as every situation is unique to your own asset but I can tell you that I have been caught out myself and walked in your shoes . There are people out there who are running with the foxes and trying to chase with the hounds , and when the problems appear they retreat back into the shadows. Integrity is everyone's business and should walk hand in hand with production/process safety, anyone who tells you different or tries to compromise your program is a concern so just tell them that the industry has created Integrity people like ourselves because it recognizes that there are "people like them" still remaining in this industry.

I hope you enjoy the article and you can contact me direct for any Integrity issues or support services.Thanks to my Latin American readers who asked if they can translate the articles into Spanish...Learning should have no barriers so please go ahead and thank you for your kind words.