API 756 – What You Need to Know

The American Petroleum Institute (API) released API Recommended Practice 756, the first edition of “Management of Hazards Associated with Location of Process Plant Tents,” that was finalized in September 2014.  There had been speculation that API was evaluating existing practices for tent siting evaluations, and this was confirmed when the API Process Safety Committee released a draft report at the end of 2013.

This recommended practice (RP 756) provides guidance for managing risk from explosions, fires, and toxic material releases to on-site personnel located in tents. The API Committee’s draft report evaluates recommended practices concerning five different types of tents utilized, including air-inflated structures. Air-inflated structures are considered to be the solution to minimize these risks and comply with API’s newly recommended practices.

Key Facts:

  • Provides guidance for managing risk from explosions, fires, and toxic material releases to on-site personnel located in tents.
  • “Tents” include a wide range of structures
  • Focused on process-related hazards
  • Tents included in the tent siting evaluation study include breaks or meals, weather shelters, change houses, orientation, training, meetings, tool stations, offices, laboratories, or equipment assembly, and more.
  • Applies to refineries, petrochemical and chemical operations, and other onshore facilities covered by OSHA 29 CFR 1910.119.

In addition to the safety considerations included in API 756, efficiency considerations are also top of the list for plant managers determining their best solution to comply with API’s recommended practices. Because air-inflatable structures allow for compliance with API 756, plant managers and industrial contractors are factoring in how to increase “Time on Tools,” or more wrench time, into their options to comply.

Don Francis, Material Planning and Logistics Lead at BP, stated, “Turnaround Logistics provided us shelters [Dynamic Air Shelters] and support that enabled us to work inside the blast zones during the 2013 FCC turnaround event. This brought personnel closer to the event, and minimized delays in travel time with each trip to the shelter.”

The full version of API RP 756 can be downloaded here.

The Importance of a Safe Facility

The tragic explosion at the West Fertilizer plant in Texas has raised many questions about chemical safety. While a fertilizer plant would not normally fall under our typical clientele, it is important to take this opportunity to discuss the need for caution and protection in the petrochemical industry.

Any time that combustible or explosive materials are present, safety must be priority number one. For example, some of the most dangerous situations can occur when a unit is being drained or taken down for maintenance. Planning ahead and taking the appropriate amount of time to prepare carefully can ensure the well-being of your employees and your business. Planning ahead can also help avoid any miscommunications or gaps in the turnaround process. If everyone knows their roll in the procedure then there is less risk that a problem will go unnoticed or an important step will be neglected.

Proper ventilation is also an important aspect of the turnaround process. When a plant is undergoing repairs, cars and trucks may be parked where they normally would not be. Exhaust fumes from a running truck can cause serious complications if they are accidentally taken in with the air supply. A simple way to avoid this is to plan safe parking places for vehicles that are far enough away from workers, equipment, trailers, and plant traffic.

Besides the obvious chemical dangers and blast risks, the warmer weather can also put your employees in danger. Surprisingly, spring weather has a high potential for causing heat stroke due to quick escalations in temperature. The human body generally needs a few days to adjust to hot weather, but in the springtime the thermometer can jump 20 degrees within a day. Providing shade and/or shelter is an easy way to protect your workers. Everyone should be alerted of the warning signs of heat stroke and how to prevent it.

Top 3 Tips for Industrial Operations Planning a Turnaround

Experience is the best teacher of all, and if you do something long enough, you’ll eventually get good at it. So we’ve learned a thing or two over the years from working with our customers.

We have a policy that our customers are always right, and there’s nothing we won’t try to do to satisfy their requests — within reason, of course. But sometimes, we’ve found, a customer will get a little confused about how to best proceed with a company offering logistics services. So here are a few tips to help guide you in meeting the logistical needs of your plant turnaround.

  1.  Whoever you use as a supplier, make sure they are basically capable of whatever product or service you are looking for. Check out the supplier’s website and follow up on the phone with a customer service rep.
  2.  Plan ahead for whatever services or equipment you need. Don’t wait till the last day to place an order. Typically, it will take a supplier a day to round up the people and equipment you need for a function and another day to set everything up.
  3.  You should always take into consideration the placement of temporary facilities, whether they are tents or office trailers or sanitation units. If you situate temporary equipment in a place where it will interfere with another business activity in the interim, you’ll have to add an additional cost to your invoice by asking the supplier to come back and move the temporary equipment. Try to know exactly where things should go beforehand.

The best piece of advice we can give you when it comes to your turnaround needs is: Think things through and plan ahead. (That holds true for a lot of problems.) And please feel free to contact us for any other questions you have when you’re doing your planning. That’s what we’re here for.

U.S. shale oil will meet most of the new oil demand

The United States may soon be able to say goodbye to foreign oil. According to the International Energy Agency, U.S. shale oil will meet most of the new oil demand from all around the globe within the next five years, even if world economies pick up more steam. Where did all of this new fossil fuel come from and how do American energy companies plan to handle the influx? Oil shale can be refined and used for the same purposes as products derived from crude oil, which is what makes the shale oil boom globally significant. Natural gas can be processed into ethane, propane, butane, and other forms of fuel, and can also be found in shale reserves. Thanks to new and advanced technologies, the United States has located new reserves of these fuels or can now attain reserves previously believed unreachable. Hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) and horizontal drilling are new technology applications that have made reaching shale oil and gas possible. The Marcellus Shale bed, a geological formation located across West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, was once thought to be exhausted, but it is now known to hold an estimated 160-500 trillion cubic feet of untapped resources. Similarly, a recent United States Geological Survey revealed an estimated 7.4 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken and Three Forks shale in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. Texas’ Barnett shale consists of sedimentary rocks well over 300 million years old and has launched Texas into the forefront of shale oil and gas production. It has been estimated to contain the largest producible reserves of any natural gas field in the U.S. Texas is also home to the Eagle Ford shale play, which is one of the most actively drilled formations in the entire country due to the ease of hydraulic fracturing in the area. Eagle Ford is considered to be a huge economic development for the state of Texas, ranking as the largest oil and gas development in the world based on invested capital. These new found fuel reserves have helped the U.S. import much less foreign oil as refineries increase production and new refineries are opened to process the influx of new resources. The U.S. is also exporting more oil and gas to other nations. Many energy companies looking to get in on the boom scrambled to get a bid in on the new reserves found in North Dakota. Refineries all over the country are in high gear and North America is soon expected to be number one in oil production out of the 12 members of OPEC.