STUDY OF CORROSION RISK ANALYSIS IN OIL PIPELINE USING

RISK BASED INSPECTION METHOD BASED ON API 581

Galang Sandy Prayogo*, Gunawan Dwi Haryadi1, Rifky Ismail1, Seon Jin Kim2
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Diponegoro University, Semarang
2
Department of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering of Pukyong National University
*gasandylang@live.com

Abstrack
Corrosion is one of the major problems that most frequently occur in the industrial sector has a
pipeline installation. The impact of corrosion can cause damage to the pipe resulting in leakage, loss
of product, environmental pollution even further may threaten the safety of employees. All the risks
associated with corrosion in terms of possibilities and consequences of the installation and the
environment need to be addressed before the start of operations routinely. The results of the corrosion
risk analysis should be used to formulate a risk-based inspection procedures should be part of the
operation of the plant. This paper presents a case study related to oil piping, beginning with a
summary of the basic principles and procedures for risk assessment and RBI corrosion applicable for
Process Industries.
Keyword: Risk Based Inspection, API 581, Corrosion Risk Analysis, Pipeline

1. Background
Corrosion is one of the major problems that most frequently occur in the industrial sector
has a pipeline installation. The impact of corrosion can cause damage to the pipe resulting in
leakage, loss of product, environmental pollution even further may threaten the safety of
employees [1]. In the 6th EGIG-report corrosion was identied as the third main cause of
incidents (15%) on gas transmission pipelines, after external interferences (50%) and
construction defect/material failures (17%). Among those 15%, external corrosion represents
80% of all accidents. Indeed, wherever coatings and/or cathodic protection may fail to
provide adequate protection to the external surface of the pipe, external corrosion may occur
[2].
Preventive maintenance is one method used to prevent it. However, with conventional
preventive maintenance is carried out in which the inspection was based on the condition
monitorinng, they are static and not dynamic it will be a lot to pay for things that may not
necessarily be any inspection or replacement. Last decade saw a trend where life management
programmes are globally moving from prescriptive/time-based towards risk based decision
making. Risk analysis nds use/application in decision making, for operation, maintenance
and regulatory activities. This methodology has been applied in planning maintenance
activities such as testing time, repair time, inspection interval etc. When this is applied to
inspection planning, it is termed as Risk based inspection. RBI would be able to establish an
effective structural integrity management programme, which reduces plant down time,
industry and regulatory burdens, and continue to maintain plant safety.[3]
2. Research Methods
The method used in the risk assessment is a method of quantitative and qualitative
methods or semi-quantitative methods. the method of semi-quantitative approach used is a
qualitative approach and quantitative approach. In this method, the data is important in
evaluating the damage mechanism and statistical models used to evaluate the probability of
failure. The results of the risk assessment with risk matriks

2.1. Risk Based Inspection

Risk is dened as the product of the likelihood of a failure and its consequences. RBI
uses the risk to plan, justify and aid in the assessments of results from inspection, testing and
monitoring [4]. RBI is the process of identifying and quantifying the consequences and the
probability of failures. The method applies both qualitative and quantitative approaches to
prioritizing rst analysis efforts and then inspection activities [5]. Qualitative risk
assessments are based primarily on expert judgment and specic plant experience. They are
plant specic and can be very accurate in terms of probability of failure if the input data is of
good quality, i.e. if the failure data are recorded properly, the estimation of likelihood of
failure will be accurate.
Quantitative risk assessments are based on statistical calculations using large
historical databases for probability of failure. The primary difference between the qualitative
and quantitative approach is the level of resolution. The qualitative procedure requires less
detailed information about the facility and as a result, its ability to discriminate is much more
limited. The qualitative technique would normally be used to rank components to determine
priorities for quantitative RBI studies [4].
Regular inspection, repair and maintenance help to reduce the failures occurring due
to pipeline deterioration, which are directly related to the level of maintenance. The whole
idea of analyzing the inspection data is to attain a reliable inference about the present and
future condition of the pipeline without actually digging out and physically inspecting
directly [6]. To formulate the RBI programme, it is necessary to evaluate the failure pressure
and the failure probability of the pipeline. The failure probabilities of pipelines are
categorized as very high, high, medium, very low and low categories [7]. This categorization
was done based on expert judgment [8]. These categories will be used along with their
consequences in the risk matrix, which gives the quantitative risk of a component. The
subsequent sections describe the methodologies that are adopted in this study for evaluating
the failure probabilities of pipelines containing a smooth rectangular corrosion defect.
2.2. Creation of corrosion loop and adoption of RBI
The corrosion loop is dened as grouping the piping, which has been exposed to
similar corrosion mechanisms, operating conditions and material group [9], as shown in Fig.
1. It may be directly applied to internal uid streams with similar material combinat ions to
enable tracking of the damaged mechanisms. Meanwhile, the corrosion loop is also a useful
feature for inspection planning: i.e. what are the potential and existing corrosion types. Then,
effective inspection and corrosion rate evaluation are performed based on the dened
corrosion loop. By means of the corrosion loop, an inspector can more clearly understand the
corrosion mechanisms of piping. This will enhance inspection efciency as well as plant
safety [10].
RBI is a systematic analysis, establishing and ranking the risk levels associated with
the operation of each piping [7]. Accordingly, RBI identies 1020% of items that cover 80
95% of the risk exposures of the equipment [11]. If the inspection is as low as reasonable, the
total risk can be markedly reduced, with its applicability and cost reduction being enhanced.

Fig. 1. A RBI methodology for a typical piping system [11]

3. Research Purposes
The objectives of RBI analysis research were to manage, predict and inspect the
damage mechanisms. The results of this analysis should be adopted as a crucial element for
overall inspection and maintenance planning..
4. Results and Discussion
A corrosion risk analysis was conducted for a proposed new hydrocarbon condensate
line a few kilometers in length. The MOC was a plain carbon steel and the line was seamless
pipe. Along with hydrocarbon liquids, the condensate contained small quantities of
condensed moisture and dissolved CO and H2S. Corrosion Risk Analysis was required to
formulate guidelines for a risk based inspection plan. Hydrocarbons themselves are not
corrosive. The CO2 content was relatively low and should not cause any appreciable
corrosion. However, the H2S content, along with its partial pressure, were such that the fluid
should be classified as sour, meaning that sulfide induced corrosion, including sulfide
stress corrosion cracking, could occur. The most likely corrosion deterioration mechanism
under the operating conditions was sulfide stress corrosion cracking (SSCC), due to the
presence of H2S. Assuming usually effective inspection techniques and a yearly inspection
frequency, the likelihood of failure category was assessed to be 2.[1]
The consequence category was assessed to be C, a somewhat high consequence,
due to the possibility of leakage of hydrocarbons through the cracks produced by SSCC and
the associated risk if fire and/or explosion. This is because the pipeline is quite long and the
containment fluid is a flammable hydrocarbon liquid. Putting the above probabilities 2-C in
the Risk Matrix, the overall ranking classification was assessed to be medium risk, as
shown below in Fig. 2.[1]

Figure 2: Risk Matrix corresponding to the Case Study

5. Summary and Conclusions

This paper has been discussed based on the principles of Risk Based Inspection (RBI)
and Corrosion Risk Analysis as widely applied to pipe oil and gas production, refining,
petrochemical and chemical process industries. This method is based on a risk analysis that
includes an analysis of the magnitude of the possibility of a failure and the magnitude of the
effect of risk arising from the failure and its relationship to the operating system is running.
With the RBI is expected to systematically provide analysis of failure mechanisms in
eritegrasi especially in the critical region, so it can find further result that should be watched
and prevented, as well as provide ideas inspections more effective and efficient. RBI allows
to revise the schedule and making it more efficient inspection intervals in accordance with the
needs and of course this will save costs for inspection. It is concluded that RBI is a very
effective method to assess risk and target inspection resources on critical items. When
correctly implemented, the RBI approach is a powerful means of increasing the safety and
reducing the inspection and maintenance costs of process plant equipment.
6. Acknowledgment
The author is grateful to Reliability Evaluation Laboratory Management at Center of
Research and Services Diponegoro University for the facilities and support.
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