The Documented Experiences of AOC

"What you do is important" - A young NDE tech's journey

How a young NDE technician's critical discovery caused a shell and tube exchanger to be pulled and returned to the fabricator.

Wayne Elliott, leader of our Inspection Group, tells the story of how a young NDE technician's critical discovery caused a large shell and tube exchanger to be pulled and returned to the fabricator. Even the most routine, run-of-the mill job can have a significant impact. No matter where one falls in the hierarchy, each team member's role is important. Avoiding complacency and staying diligent and attentive to detail can make a big difference.

Steam System Risk Mitigation Using Risk Based Inspection

The benefits of utilizing risk-based methodologies for the inspection programs of often overlooked utilities systems

A review of AOC's partnership with the Dow/DuPont Sabine River Facility, Rob Sladek and Gerald Skinner were part of the team tasked to perform an RBI implementation on the plant's steam system, the goal of which was to mitigate risk and reduce maintenance costs associated with the utilities service. This case study outlines a great success story for an often overlooked, but critical, operation within the plant. Presented on January 30, 2019 at the API 2019 Inspection and Mechanical Integrity Summit.

Risk Based Inspection Yields Big Savings for Gulf Coast Chemical Plant

A 26-Year-Old Gulf Coast Chemical Plant Saves over $15 Million in Related Inspection Activities.

A Gulf Coast-based chemical plant recognized the need to have all their fixed equipment, piping, and pressure relief devices converted from a conventional API inspection program into a Risk-based approach. Through the RBI implementation, they realized a 65% reduction in inspection requirements while projecting an estimated $3.2M reduction in maintenance cost and a risk reduction savings estimated at $4.6M over the next 10 yrs. Additionally, the opportunity to increase turnaround intervals had a projected cost savings of $8M over 10 yrs.

RBMI Implementation Saves Refinery $63 Million

130,000 BPD Refinery Implements RBMI Program and projects a $63 Million savings over 10 years.

A US-based Refinery (130,000 BPD) recognized the benefits of implementing an RBMI software-based Risk Based Inspection (RBI) program at the facility to reduce the number of fixed equipment inspections, relief device maintenance and overall reduction of the risk of loss of containment incidents each year (cost avoidance). Through the RBI implementation, the facility performed the inspection and maintenance activities recommended by the RBMI software and significantly reduced the risk exposure ($5.1 million/year) and optimized inspection and maintenance plans ($1.2 million/year).

Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) in Chemical Plant Equipment and Piping

Implementation of a managed CUI program yields prioritized inspection plans and identifies imminent failures.

A 25 year old Gulf Coast US Chemical Plant was experiencing increased CUI failures and was in need of inputting all of their insulated equipment and piping into a managed CUI program with a prioritized inspection and maintenance list. Upon completion, all assets were in a manageable CUI program with prioritized inspection plans based on risk. More than a dozen imminent failures were identified.

The MI Assessment - Understanding Your Mechanical Integrity Goals

Compliance? | Best Practice? | Risk Reduction? | One Step at a Time? | Capture Personnel Knowledge? | All Of The Above?

We will take you through a systematic, step by step process leading up to completing a world class RBI program at a major fertilizer manufacturer.

Operational Readiness: Transition from Construction to Startup to Operations and Maintenance

Design basis RBI? Why not optimize all your asset families prior to RFSU?

A major LNG Owner Operator has multiple projects at the EPC phase in addition to an existing facility. From the OWNER'S perspective, a key point of frustration involves migrating "all that asset data" as early as possible into a CMMS and AIM that is comprehensively aligned with asset taxonomy of the ERP.

Data Mining, Management, and Migration

Sometimes moving millions of data fields from ten different databases to another seems like trying to get a thousand birds to leave the branches of one tree and land on just the right branches of another.

Sometimes moving millions of data fields from ten different databases to another seems like trying to get a thousand birds to leave the branches of one tree and land on just the right branches of another.

Production Loss Accounting - Heat Exchanger Bad Actor Analysis

Heat exchanger failures contribute to over $146M in losses for a large refining enterprise.

A bad actor analysis is a key component of any maintenance and reliability study. As in the case of this refining enterprise, we were able to save the owner over $100M in lost opportunity expenses with a simple solution.

Risk Based Inspection: What To Expect

Significant findings, even after ten years.

Do you know how to prepare for implementing an RBI program? Here is a perspective from an owner who has been managing an RBI best practice for close to 10 years.

Meaningful KPIs

Anything worth doing is worth doing right.

How do you measure success, both personally and professionally? What are the goals we set for ourselves, at home and at work? What are the behaviors we want to encourage? What are the behaviors we want to discourage?

The following case studies reveal how these companies set goals that were both personally as well as professionally encouraging. In each of these case studies, these companies developed an environment for continually improving and measuring the performance of their asset management program as well as the performance of their people, all with safety as the overarching goal.The process however, was not as simple as delineating KPIs as part of a set of project requirements.

OSHA Compliance

What do you do when you are on the job for six weeks and you have a toxic leak twice the release of the recent DuPont event? Not to mention the fact that it is only 1992 and OSHA 1910.119 is just getting started...

In 1992, our Vice President of Technology faced an uncontrolled leak of 50,000 pounds of Methyl Mercaptan. He had been on the job as a brand new maintenance engineer for only six weeks when the event happened. To make matters worse, OSHA and EPA representatives and the media showed up at his site soon afterwards. The resulting audit of his site required him to gather over 175,000 documents, and for the next six weeks, he spent his time giving depositions. The regulator had established that his company had no MI or PSM program.

Storage Tank RBI

How many RBI studies have been completed on above ground storage tanks (ASTs)? We have completed hundreds.

The process industry is faced with increasing economic pressure and a no-tolerance attitude toward environmental accidents. The presence of a large number of storage tanks containing dangerous products constitutes one of the major risks of pollution. Storage tanks are continuously subjected to environmental effects, unavoidably leading to degradation under the form of a corrosion attack. This degradation causes a gradual loss of material and accumulates over the years, ultimately resulting in complete wall penetration and leak formation. Through a leak, the contained product will pollute soil and groundwater. RBI is well established and widely used in the oil and gas, refining, petrochemical and chemical industries. Internal examination of storage tanks, especially of the floor, is difficult and costly. Prioritizing inspections and repair based on risk can improve reliability by focusing inspection resources on those damage mechanisms driving the tank's risk.