October 2018

Major incidents continue to strike the oil and gas industry at regular intervals.

Even for pressure relief valves (PRVs) discharging directly to the atmosphere through short tailpipes, API 520 Part 11 warns that choked flow may develop at the outlet flange, resulting in high backpressure.

If a fire, smoke or gas leak is detected in a hydrocarbon processing facility, prescriptive actions must be taken by the fire and gas (F&G) safety system, as well as by the process control system (PCS), to mitigate and control the hazard.

Should the chemical industry be satisfied with its existing safety programs, or is change needed to create a new paradigm?

Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals’ olefins plant in Port Harcourt, Nigeria is designed to produce 300,000 tpy of polymer-grade ethylene and 126,000 tpy of polymer-grade propylene through the pyrolysis or thermal cracking of natural gas liquids (NGL).

Welding is an ocean of substance, a technique without which the joining of metals is impossible.

A gas processing plant in Malaysia eliminated a source of expensive failures in its acid gas removal unit (AGRU).

One of the most misunderstood and misused components of conductive steam tracing systems is heat transfer compound (HTC).

In the chemical and process industries, gases or vapor mixtures must be cooled to temperatures near the water dewpoint in a variety of thermal unit operations.

Steam ejector vacuum systems are the most common means of creating and maintaining a vacuum in the process units of oil and gas processing facilities.

Resid units have more than 2 wt% Conradson carbon residue (Concarbon) in feed and more than 5,000 parts per million (ppm) of nickel (Ni) and vanadium (V) on equilibrium catalysts (Ecat).

Any personnel working in a refinery or heavy petrochemical plant with “vintage” automation equipment are painfully aware of the effects a distributed control system (DCS) from the 1990s, 1980s or even earlier can have on operations.

It’s that time again! Hydrocarbon Processing has announced the nominees for its annual Top Project awards.

The safety and reliability of fluid machinery has been the subject of hundreds of columns, books and articles over the past decades.

Heat exchangers have multiple tubes with fluid passing through and over them that either heats or cools another fluid.

The oil and gas industry is aging, and it is time to get wiser when it comes to training and productivity.

As the 2020 deadline set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for the implementation of low-carbon shipping regulations inches closer, African refineries are still grappling with the question of how to finance the upgrading of oil processing plants to enable them to produce the required low-sulfur marine fuels and reduce reliance on noncompliant import fuels for powering the region’s shipping industry.

Over the last 2 yr, the plant maintenance department (PMD) at Eastman Chemical Co.’s Longview, Texas site produced these significant improvements to plant performance.

When top oil marketer Geneva Energy Markets LLC liquidated its trading book holding¹ “millions of barrels of open interest across crude oil, refined products and natural gas,” managing partner Mark Vonderheide emphasized the pressures and potential damage of new market regulations.

The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO’s) 2020 regulation has been described as the most disruptive change to impact the oil industry in the past 30 yr.

According to the Hydrocarbon Processing Construction Boxscore Database, more than 320 new downstream capital projects have been announced over the past year.

Across the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI), executives are buzzing about operational excellence.

Jenny Hebert and George Yaluris of Albemarle accept the HP Award for Best Catalyst Technology.

The US product market strengthened, mainly supported by higher product exports, particularly to Latin America.

According to Hydrocarbon Processing’s Construction Boxscore Database, more than 320 new projects have been announced in the downstream processing industry over the past year.