Process safety history

Process safety history

In the 1960s, offshore oil/gas operators formed a committee under the American Petroleum InstituteThe American Petroleum Institute, commonly referred to as API, is the main U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry, representing about 400 corporations involved in production, refinement, distribution, and many other aspects of the industry. ..... Click the link for more information.to write Recommended Practice 14C (API RP 14C) for process safety systems. API RP 14C's official title is Recommended Practice for Analysis, Design, Installation, and Testing of Basic Surface Safety Systems for Offshore Production Platforms. API RP 14C is presently in its seventh edition and is required by government regulations for all offshore operators. It outlines the basic requirements for a process safety system by identifying the normal process components (vessels, pumps, pipelines, compressors, and the like) on an offshore facility and the minimum number and type of safety devices required. Specific exemptions are listed when a safety device may not be required. It is up to the operator to review his design and determine if each device is either required or not.

API RP 14C provides a simple standard you can easily apply to offshore oil and gas facilities where the process design is the same basic type that has seen use for years. It errs on the conservative side by requiring safety devices, which might be ded under ISA84, IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iec.ch) An organization that sets international electrical and electronics standards founded in 1906. It is made up of national committees from over 60 countries.

IEC - International Electrotechnical Commission 61511, or IEC 61 508 analysis. It does not address the implementation of the safety system, rather focusing on the required functions.

This standard was developed almost 20 years before ISA84, IEC 61 51 1 , or IEC 61 508. It has created an approach to process safety that differs from the approach advocated in other industries in a few key areas.

From the government

One of the major differences between onshore and offshore operations is the involvement of the Mineral Management Service (MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) An enhanced transmission service that enables graphics, video clips and sound files to be transmitted via cellphones. Developed as part of the 3GPP project, MMS phones are generally backward compatible with SMS and EMS. ), the agency of the Department of the Interior that oversees all exploration and production activities offshore. API RP 14C requires the development of SAFE charts (cause-and-effect charts) and safety flow diagrams (P&ID diagrams showing equipment and safety devices). The MMS requires them to be submitted during the design phase of any project. The MMS will come out just after start-up to fully inspect the facility and confirm all equipment and safety devices are as depicted depicttr.v. depicted, depicting, depicts1. To represent in a picture or sculpture.

2. To represent in words; describe. See Synonyms at represent. . After that, any changes to the SAFE charts or safety flows must be reported and approved prior to implementation. The MMS also makes a yearly trip out to the facility to inspect and report the operator is performing required testing and maintaining records.

Failure to follow these requirements can result in the MMS fining or even shutting down the facility. The MMS also reserves the right to make surprise inspections. This requirement for review and approval of safety systems receives support from 14Cs easy cookbook (programming) cookbook - (From amateur electronics and radio) A book of small code segments that the reader can use to do various magic things in programs.

One current example is the "PostScript Language Tutorial and Cookbook" by Adobe Systems, Inc (Addison-Wesley, ISBN approach, which provides for a simple framework. Each type of process equipment (pump, vessel, tank, pipeline) has a list of the required safety devices and when you can exclude those devices.

In the SAFE chart for each piece of process equipment, all the required safety devices are listed, and those that have been excluded have the reference to the safety analysis checklist, which lists all the reasons for excluding a device. The SAFE chart becomes an easy tool to check that all requirements have been met and what actions the safety devices take.

Shut it all down

In section 4.2.3, API RP 14C specifically addresses the idea of cascading shutdowns and forbids the practice. The idea of shutting in an affected vessel and letting the remainder of the process train, react, and eventually shutdownshutdownn.A cessation of operations or activity, as at a factory.

shutdownNoun

the closing of a factory, shop, or other business

Verb

shut down ..... Click the link for more information.is called cascading. The 14C specification specifically forbids cascading with a few reasoned-out exceptions. The idea is any event on a process train needs to shut down the primary energy source for that process unit and not allow a process upset to ripple through systems. On an offshore oil/gas facility, that primary source is usually the oil/gas wells flowing into the facility. As such, an event on a single vessel will affect the entire facility, especially if it is a process critical vessel like a flare scrubber or process sump tank. On a typical offshore oil/gas facility, 20 safety devices will shut in the entire facility. Also, 200-400 safety devices will shut in their specific piece of equipment or a section of the process train depending on the size and complexity of the facility.

Not only do safety devices shut in the facility, but so does an extensive network of fire and gas sensors and emergency shutdown buttons. API RP 14C defines where ESD (1) (Electronic Software Distribution) Distributing new software and upgrades via the network rather than individual installations on each machine. See ESL. buttons must be located on an offshore facility, and they have to affect an entire facility shutdown. There are also extensive rules on the location of fusible plugs (Steam Boiler) a piece of easily fusible alloy, placed in one of the sheets and intended to melt and blow off the steam in case of low water.- Ure.

See also: Fusible for fire detection in addition to fire/gas sensors.

This philosophy makes sense on an offshore oil/gas facility where stopping the process and restarting it are not extremely hazardous. The risk of having to perform a restart To resume computer operation after a planned or unplanned termination. See boot, warm boot and checkpoint/restart. is dwarfed by the risk of having an unsafe event on what is essentially an isolated location surrounded by water with no place to flee. The assumption is this would reduce the facility uptime, but it has not. Quite a few offshore platforms have achieved long run times. It does make them vulnerable to false trips, though. But once the oil wells are closed, restarting the facility does not pose significant hazards.

Test, test again

API RP 14C was written around the technology available at the time in the 1960s and 1970s, which was pneumatic devices pneumatic device

Any of various tools and instruments that generate and use compressed air. Examples include rock drills, pavement breakers, riveters, forging presses, paint sprayers, blast cleaners, and atomizers. Compressed-air power is flexible, economical, and safe. and logic. To provide good reliability, frequent testing was required; 14C was written around yearly testing, and the MMS imposed stricter testing requirements. Input devices (shutdown inputs or SDIs) and shutdown valves were required to be tested monthly and pressure relief valves Pressure Relief ValveA Pressure Relief Valve is a safety device that relief in case of overpressure in vessel or piping.

The generic term is or Pressure Relief Valve (PRV) or Pressure Safety Valve (PSV)

automatic system that relief by static pressure on a liquid. were to be tested yearly. The advent of reliable electronic transmitters has allowed the MMS to relax the testing of SDIs using electronic transmitters to once every three months.

Running any type of process train, which is adverse to process shutdowns in the same manner as an offshore oil/gas platform, may seem like madness and probably is. The important fact is API RP 14C has not only been recommended, but it has been the law in the Gulf of Mexico for the last 40 years.

The more active safety system employed by offshore oil/gas facilities are prone to spurious spuriousadj.Similar in appearance or symptoms but unrelated in morphology or pathology; false.

spurious

simulated; not genuine; false. trips due to operator mistakes and process upsets, but you should contrast this against the safety records achieved. In the last nine years, no process safety related fatalities on offshore oil/gas platforms have occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. While there have been fires and equipment failures, the safety systems have worked and performed as expected. During this time, the Gulf of Mexico has produced over 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent and production crews logged almost 250 million man hours without a process related fatality fatalityn.1. A death resulting from an accident or disaster.

2. One that is killed as a result of such an occurrence. .