One of the biggest adversaries to the smooth operation of every oil and gas production facility is the season change from fall to winter. This is a critical time to ensure that insulation and heat trace solutions that are removed during projects, and that turnaround work, has been reinstalled and energized.
What Puts The Heat Trace System At Risk?
In most cases, mechanical and turnaround work is completed during the warmer summer months when insulation and heat tracing is an afterthought. Heat trace circuits are de-energized and removed, and insulation and blankets are pulled off to access equipment.
While the focus is on the mechanical work, there is often a disconnect between when the mechanical work is completed and when the heat trace and insulation can be reinstalled and energized. The piping and mechanical system is returned to service and operating, while the heat trace and insulation remain removed and de-energized.
Minimizing The Risk Of Freeze Events
For new systems, it’s crucial to ensure that all heat trace and insulation are installed and operational before being introduced to the pipe.
Existing oil and gas facilities should make the tracking of insulation removals part of their maintenance cycle. At any given time, there needs to be a clear tracking and reporting mechanism that details how much insulation and heat trace was removed and from which system and location they were removed.
The Risks Of A Non-Systemic Approach
Traditionally, system deficiencies in an extensive production facility are tracked through the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. The software will then create a report based on the inputted information for the work crew to review.
However, the report can contain inaccuracies because the information was gathered manually and entered into the ERP software after a deficiency was noticed in the facility. The data was also not subject to any sort of consistent standard or minimum requirements.
Let’s use this typical scenario as an example: the industrial facility’s employees or external contractors go out into the field to carry out a system inspection. If missing insulation or heat trace is detected, the person will write their findings in a notebook, take pictures, or simply make mental notes. They would then return to the shop or office to input their notes as text in the ERP software to create a report for the work team.
The main issue with this process is that the resulting report will often have significant amounts of variation because each employee will enter different information in a different format.
In addition, if the report has missing or incomplete information, the party planning the work will need to visit the area to check everything themselves, confirm or correct the original findings, and build a work plan based on any new information.
This scenario results in wasted time and money. There’s also a risk that the issue will get worse and become a severe problem in the meantime.
A better solution that gives the service team all the information they require to plan the work and eliminates the need to return to the field to gather additional information is MSCP’s standardized, field-created Insulation and Heat Trace Deficiency Reports. These reports contain all the necessary information you need to create a work plan.
Read More: Heat Trace
The Benefits Of MSCP’s Heat Trace Deficiency Reports
MSCP’s Heat Management Reports are created in the field rather than back at the office, helping to ensure that no crucial details are forgotten. We use standardized templates specific to the type of deficiency so that only information relevant to the problem is recorded. Data in the reports include all the required tests to help document and diagnose the problem and high-resolution photographs for remote visual inspection.
Furthermore, the scope is tracked via P&IDs (Piping and Instrument Diagrams), and all material to complete the repairs is reserved in our warehouse. We track our scope in the language our clients speak so they can be confident that their facility won’t freeze in cold weather.
Our customers have found that MSCP’s Heat Management Deficiency Reports provide low variation in the necessary information, eliminating the duplication of work by planners and saving time and money caused by unnecessary delays.
Making heat management detection and reporting part of your facility’s regular maintenance cycle is essential. Along with MSCP’s digital work packages, they’re your best defense against severe system failure, costly shutdown, and preventable repair.
The MSCP Difference
Our goal at MSCP is to help your facility achieve zero downtime due to heat management issues using accurate, tech-based Heat Management Deficiency Reports and Digital Work Packages that ensure your operation stays productive and profitable.
Contact us anytime to learn more about how we can help you.
