{"id":1169,"date":"2026-02-14T21:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hydrocarbon.sbs\/?p=1169"},"modified":"2026-03-24T22:42:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:42:05","slug":"baseline-line-inspections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petrostreet.com\/main\/baseline-line-inspections\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseline Inspections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Whenever there is an EPC project with engineering, procurement, construction and sometimes commissioning awarded to a contractor, Owner for the quality part has no choice else to just accept thousands of reports duly signed-off by the Contractor men and verified by their own personnel engaged with Contractor QC. Maintaining a good level of QA\/QC over any project related to petrochemicals, refining, oil & gas is a challenging task. Picking findings and flaws may be easy sometimes but getting them resolved requires a bit of an extra effort and most of the times picking the real findings itself stand tough with the pace of a project meeting deadlines supersedes maintaining Quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fig. 1<\/strong> Representative view of an oil refinery<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction Manager standing close to your desk and asking how much time would your inspections take; we have to move forward. Progress pressures are immense which cannot be tolerated every now and then. This how there are things which go unnoticed, unchecked and un-inspected. Everybody knows about these gaps in inspection during the course of the project as more concerning thing is to meet the S-curve and go as per the planned timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This gap can be managed through warranty shutdown but only to a little extent as not everything can be inspected to have a better confidence. In many cases, warranty shutdowns are not given the right value by putting appropriate inspection resources. More focus is normally given on issues which popped up during the first operational run. Solving them in first place is the priority and that too get addressed with a lot of struggle with the Contractor men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fig. 2 <\/strong>Representation of Tank Inspection<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best approach to have a better inspection confidence and a real time data which would help in long term asset operability and integrity is to form an approach of baseline inspection. With baseline inspection, it is meant to say an inspection program which is run by the owner-user inspection group after they take over the asset. Baseline data should be collected in a way that all the pressure boundary asset, the static equipment, having high criticality in terms of risk are checked with a measurable inspection confidence. What is an inspection confidence and how can it be measured? When we talk about any equipment or piping in operation at site, there are few key properties which control its intended function like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Its material of construction,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Design & installed thickness &<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Finishing (including paint and insulation)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Fig. 3<\/strong> Positive Material Inspection in-progress<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If only these three key properties for a list of high risk equipment or piping are verified then confidence of inspection gets higher and eventually probability of failure is better judged in an RBI program. There is a big difference in starting off with known properties of a static equipment at site rather than those promised on drawings when using a RBI software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We discuss about each of these properties in a little more detail to see how practical is that to be verified at a very early stage of plant operation. If the inspection personnel are the same attached with the QA\/QC time, a head on start can be taken as they are aware with the kind of equipment installed and their criticality. A new team will be spending time in obtaining the list of equipment and their safety risk. Safety critical equipment list is the first item to start with verification in the form of a baseline inspection program. And the first property to verify is the correct material installed for both equipment and piping. Here an easy go away can be given to equipment as it is highly unlikely to have an equipment installed at site having an incorrect material of construction. However, there still are chances where the material installed for internals can be installed incorrectly but that is something which can only be checked while performing internal inspection of equipment. And it stands out of the program we are talking about. Coming to piping, this is the area highly vulnerable where incorrect material can be installed not by mistake but sometimes intentionally just to save high cost for installing alloys. Not the complete piping system is to doubt, a random check would provide us enough confidence on correct material selection but what that random exactly means is a big question. While performing a check on piping system for correct material installation, small bore piping is the first to look into as large bore piping is normally ordered to the correct quality and an easy catch for inspection if something incorrect installed during the project. This is small bore piping which is never estimated correctly, can\u2019t be as well due to several reasons and there Contractor men start putting shorter lengths of small bore piping not fit to install. A simple plan of PMI (positive material identification) for each alloy piping is required to be developed and a baseline inspection is performed. Carbon steel piping can be easily excluded as nothing inferior to that would any Contractor find and install. It is also important that the records of NCRs (Non-Conformity Reports) can be taken up and assessed for this very finding during the plant construction. How many NCRs were related to material non-conformance to the original piping specifications and in which piping system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Moving to the next check, design and installed thickness are the another key parameters for any equipment and piping. Would consider going away with the equipment again as the checks on plates and other raw material being used for equipment are enough to pick up if any wrong thickness is installed in contrast to the design value. Yet again, piping has to be checked thoroughly for lower schedules installed at certain places where Contractor could not either arrange the correct schedule or time was the constraint for this non-conformance. A ready record of non-conformances issued under this category would help to make an effective plan. It is to be considered that the priority must be given to safety critical piping systems first when making a baseline inspection plan for thickness check. Original specifications shall be picked up when performing thickness check. This check can be costly and time taking as piping runs across at all elevations and arranging scaffolding and insulation removal is an added cost. This cost should also be considered when making a plan for material check. Once baselines inspection is done for thickness check, this would be the starting point of thickness trending in future for each piping system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Fig. 4<\/strong>: UT monitoring in-progress<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The last parameter which should also be verified in baseline inspection program is the painting and insulation condition of both the equipment and piping. Incorrect paint application, poor quality of paint or insulation can cause early damages which can range from ineffective thermal insulation to parent metal deterioration through atmospheric corrosion or corrosion under insulation. Though painting and insulation can be seen with naked eye and no hefty resources are required to perform this task but still it is essential to include application of advanced NDT like infrared thermography to see insulation cover as per specification and then measuring coating applied thickness and type of coating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Fig. 5<\/strong>: Painting \/Finishing of Newly Installed Units<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Once baseline inspection is done, all the recommendations should be compiled and presented to the management for their review and approval of a plan to fix them. An effective baseline inspection can save millions by preventing safety incidents caused by the key parameters overlooked during construction phase that is incorrect material installation, low thickness components than design value and poor finishing of pressure boundary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Whenever there is an EPC project with engineering, procurement, construction and sometimes commissioning awarded to a contractor, Owner for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_ppp_document_settings_meta":"{\"product_ids\":[{\"label\":\"Baseline Line Inspections - 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there is an EPC project with engineering, procurement, construction and sometimes commissioning awarded to a contractor, Owner for the 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