How Can I Address Leaks in an Oil and Gas Facility?
Leaks in an oil and gas facility can cause a range of issues—from increased costs to safety hazards. Hear from Mike Aughenbaugh, oil, gas, and chemicals lead as he explains what to look for when it comes to leaks and how you can prevent them from happening in the first place.
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BETH NIESER:
Hi and welcome to Ask Swagelok. I’m Beth Nieser, and I'm here today with Mike Aughenbaugh, who's one of our leads in the oil, gas and chemical space. Today, we're going to be talking about mitigating leaks in oil and gas facilities. So, Mike, how big of a deal are leaks in an oil and gas facility?
MIKE AUGHENBAUGH:
Yeah, leaks are a huge deal, right? And we classify these in three different ways. The first is a real leak. And this can be an external or internal leak into your system. So the external leak would be steam escaping on a winter day, for example, and internal leaks can be something under vacuum. You're actually sucking the environment into your piping. The next would be a virtual leak. And finally, permeation.
You know, leaks can cause a variety of issues in the facility. The biggest one is a fluctuation in pressure and flow of your system. And what this ends up doing is it causes your boilers and your compressors to work into varying degrees of efficiency, and that can cause issues for your facility.
The biggest one is going to be with safety, right? A lot of these facilities have materials inside their piping systems that can be asphyxiants, carcinogenic, deadly, or flammable. And then these can also cause slip and freeze-ups. For example, condensate freezing on the ground can be a slipping hazard for your operators.
The next would be damage to structures. Leaking piping and valves can actually cause rot of structures, which can be safety issues as well. But let's also remember commoditized valves are responsible for about 62% of uncontrolled VOC emissions.
BETH NIESER:
Okay, so 62%. That seems like a really significant number.
MIKE AUGHENBAUGH:
It's a huge number and a lot of it is unnoticed until your facility receives fines for things like this. The final thing I want to talk about is productivity and yield. When you have leaks into the atmosphere or leaks within your system, these are wasted end products that you would like to turn into sellable products to your customers. Because of that, there's a huge opportunity cost with repairing these leaks in these systems. Sometimes these costs would be better spent elsewhere in your facility or on other projects.
The final thing I want to say here is that, when facilities have systems that cannot be mitigated, a lot of times your operators have to suit up and increase PPE, and these are additional labor costs for your facility as well.
BETH NIESER:
So Mike, how can a maintenance team know if the valves in their facility need to be replaced?
MIKE AUGHENBAUGH:
Yeah, sure, Beth. The number one thing is you always want to empower your maintenance and operators to identify certain issues with valves. The first thing you want to look at is going to be the stem seal. The stem is where it connects the valve handle with the body of the valve. If you notice any sort of leaks, crustiness, corrosion, anything like that, that would be your first indication there's an issue.
Look for the same symptoms with your flange seals. Are you seeing an extruded flange seal? That could be another indication something's wrong. The condition of the valve body itself is also a good indication that something needs to be replaced. Are you seeing a lot of rust or corrosion? Any fasteners that are failing? That's another reason. Also, look at the local environment. Are you seeing drips under the valves? Is anything pooling? Any splatter on exterior structures nearby?
Finally, actuate the valve and see whether it’s easy or hard to actuate. Whether it feels smooth or rough is also an indication that something is going on inside.
So then the question comes up, “When and where should low-E certified valves be used?” I'd suggest all hydrocarbon service should have low-E certified valves, because those certifications are tested to the conditions in which that valve is going to be placed. And the good news is that brand-new valves out of the box with low-E certifications should last years without any stem packing adjustments in the field.
The next would be utility service. I would also argue that all utility service valves should be low-E as well, due to potential for misapplications in hydrocarbon service during projects.
BETH NIESER:
What actions can somebody take to prevent leaks in their facility?
MIKE AUGHENBAUGH:
Yeah, sure. The first is to actually have a program, often known as LDAR—Leak Detection and Repair. This allows you to identify leaks in your facility and help mitigate them, or reduce the chances they'll leak altogether. Manufacturers can also help with your LDAR efforts. The overall goal is to reduce inspection, labor, and time that your facility spends addressing these issues.
The biggest factor is really to prevent misapplication. Swagelok can help with the correct valves to mitigate problem areas and systems, and can also help with your MOC (Management of Change) if you're replacing with something that's not of the same kind. Identification of bad actors in system design affecting valve performance is another area where manufacturers can help. It may not be a process issue—it could be vibration, the valve’s location, the valve type, or how operators interact with it. Finally, looking at metallurgy can help with corrosion mitigation to improve system leak rates overall.
BETH NIESER:
Great. Well, thank you for those recommendations and thank you for joining Ask Swagelok.