Development of a Comprehensive Facility Integrity Management Program

PROJECT

LOCATION

Texas

Background

A large multi-national energy company needed to establish a comprehensive Facility Integrity Management Program (FIMP) for its natural gas operations facilities. These generally include a set of safety management, operations, maintenance, evaluation, and assessment processes.

Challenges

The objective was to establish a program that paralleled the company’s Pipeline Integrity Management Program. The fixed facilities included 30 gas processing facilities, two terminals and other storage facilities, 100 compressor stations, and 12 laterals and delivery/receipt facilities in high-consequence areas (HCAs).

Solutions

To meet the challenge and satisfy the client’s need for a new FIMP, ENTRUST Solutions Group was retained to utilize the concepts of (1) 49 CFR 192, Subpart O, Gas Transmission Pipeline Integrity Management, (2) ASME B 31.8S-2010, Managing System Integrity of Gas Pipelines, and (3) API RP 580 Risk-Based Inspection, 2009 and other industry standards.

This included completing an initial screening of all of its gas processing facilities to quantify the potential risk related to each, conducting risk-based inspections (RBIs) at the three highest-risk gas processing facilities to better define risks and establish mitigating actions, and conducting risk evaluations at the 12 facilities located in HCAs to better define risks and mitigating actions.

Also included was an evaluation of asset integrity management software programs, assisting in the procurement and pilot study implementation, and developing pre/mid/long-term strategic plans for the FIMP to communicate to the Board of Directors and senior executive management.

Key Results:

As a result of the above activities, the client now has:

A documented and established, continually improving Facilities Integrity Management Program that is fully integrated with operations and other stakeholders.
A foundation to track risk management (# of incidents), compliance (# of violations), and efficiency (# of down days) to establish the results and value of the program.
A program to move the client from a prescriptive to a predictive maintenance and inspection program, allowing them to allocate resources and capital more proportional to risks.
A facility integrity software management system to house equipment records, RBIs, inspection data, conclusions of risks, inspection recommendations, and work orders (Maximo interface).

Project