Nitrogen Purging of Large Oil and Gas Installations
Nitrogen purging of oil and gas installations is a vital process used to remove reactive gases before commissioning or breaking containment. So you would expect those doing such operations would have a clear understanding of the way gases behave during the process; however, our experience tells us this is not always the case. For example:
Have you ever heard someone say:
“complicated oil and gas installations are too difficult to purge using a flow technique? And the simplest way to purge theses is using a pressure purge technique – where you treat it as one large vessel?”
Or,
“you need to let the nitrogen gas soak for a few hours?”
Or even,
“the gases can layer out and travel past one another, it’s known as stratification you know?”
If so – please don’t automatically believe them!
Another Scenario.
Having completed your purge – as far as you are are to a satisfactory end point. You quite rightly undertake some final tests the following day only to find high concentrations of flammables still in the pipework. This time you reason, the flammable gases have either “magically come back, or the gas detector you’re using must be faulty!“
Guess what, normally this isn’t true either.
And we will tell you why.
Nitrogen purging is an often neglected part of gas detector training. Over the past few years we have been researching the most effective way of nitrogen and vacuum purging oil and gas installations and much of what we have learned is published in the various articles within this website. But, due to the practical nature of purging, @gt felt it was worth developing a series of classroom and site based courses designed to help engineers and gas testers understand how gases behave in both simple and complicated pipe configurations.
Each of the scenarios described above are explained and demonstrated during the course. Learners are then given a series of practical exercises to try for themselves and if needed, their problematic pipe configurations can be recreated and the most effective means of purging them explored.
Knowing how gases travel and the best way of removing them, results in less down time and much safer operating conditions. The courses use both classroom and practical sessions to test the knowledge of learners and demonstrate best practice in different scenarios. By following a simple 6 step process, @gt ensures learners leave not only with specialist purging skills, but ones they can also remember!
We are now in a position to offer courses ideal for:
- Offshore production installations
- Pipelines and vessels
- Complex systems
- Offshore and onshore compressor installations
- Onshore pressure reduction stations
- LNG installations etc.
We want your operators and gas testers to come and try the courses as we are confident many of you will save millions of dollars as a result. Imagine if you could cut your down time by several days, simply by attended a few hours of training. Please believe us when we say, all who have tried it todate say it really works.
If you would like to know more – simply contact us and ask.
