The plant has been in operation for a few decades and it has a well-established recognised
inspection
service (Service d’Inspection Reconnue, SIR) according to the French regulations and it has implemented
RBI in the past based on an older version of API 581.
Regulatory background
RBI application for pressurised equipment in the oil & gas, chemical and petrochemical industry is
regulated in France typically by 2 possible guidance documents:
Guide Plan d' Inspection DT84 (DT84, 2010). Installations meeting the requirements of this guidance
document can perform inspection based on RBI with maximum inspection and requalification interval of
6 years and 12 years respectively
Guide Plan d' Inspection DT32 (DT32, 2008). Installations meeting the requirements of this guidance
document can perform inspection based on RBI with maximum inspection and requalification interval of
5 years and 10 years
The first document (DT 84) has stricter requirements but it allows slightly longer inspection and
requalification intervals.
The TIGF gas plant of our case study meets the requirements of DT 84. To simplify for our international
readers this means:
•
6-yearly shutdown, when periodic inspections (IP) are generally performed on all equipment,
assuming that the RBI allows this and the maximum inspection interval is 6 years. The types of
performed inspections depend on the damage mechanisms. Generally a visual inspection is
performed on all equipment (as well as the attached safety and pressure accessories) and
additional inspections (specific controls) may be performed depending on active damage
mechanisms and RBI.
•
12-yearly requalification which coincides with the one out of two 6-yearly periodic turnarounds
but it also includes a hydro-test (unless it is under regulatory exemption) and verification of
documents.
•
Additional inspections (or specific controls) may have to be performed between the 6-yearly
shutdowns if the RBI indicates that the risk is high and more frequent inspections are required.
The fundamental requirement is that each equipment must have its own “inspection plan” (“written
scheme of examination” is a more common term in English) which specifies the details (nature,
periodicity, location etc.) of periodic inspections, requalification examinations or other inspections
recommended by the RBI.
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WHITEPAPER
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Synergi Plant - RBI
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Inspection planning workflow for TIGF gas plant
Figure 6 shows the inspection planning workflow that has been configured in the Synergi Plant software
for the TIGF gas plant so that the French regulatory requirements can be met.
Figure 6:
TIGF gas plant inspection planning flow diagram combining RBI and regulatory
constraints
The RBI module (box 2) is fed with equipment data and inspection history data (boxes 4 and 5) as well
as configuration data (e.g. fluid data, material data, inspection tasks and their effectiveness) and is run
for the selected scope of equipment to calculate risk results and a generic inspection plan, including
inspection dates and inspection tasks for each component (box 6). The RBI inspection results are fed
