On April 22, ARPEL Refinery Committee delivered the online workshop on “Exchanging Best Pipeline Inspection Practices,” lectured by Eduardo Delgado, Inspection Engineer from ENAP Aconcagua Refinery, and Vicente Gonzalez, Inspection Manager at EP PETROECUADOR Esmeraldas Refinery.

More than 60 professionals from 14 refineries representing Ancap, Axion Energy, EP Petroecuador, Ecopetrol, Enap, Pemex, Petroperú, Profertil, Raizen, Repsol and YPF attended this online meeting.

The presentations reviewed the organization of each refinery, their permanent personnel and that of their subcontractors’, as well as their level of training. The experts stated that the certifications of the professionals in the different application fields are under way.

Pipelines are the most abundant facilities at refineries. There can be as many as 20,000 different lines or even more, with a variety of services and diameters that force us to define their criticality based on the service. Circuits are defined and segmented based on their criticality (API 570), considering factors such as corrosion, erosion phenomena, material fatigue, service conditions, etc.

Asset integrity management is based on a process that starts with the first project steps and ends with the final facility arrangement. Throughout this process, the Inspection Department professionals perform their specific duties based on their training and use of tools, to later analyze data together with professionals from the different refinery areas.

Link to the workshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5OyQrKNngQ&t=7s