Situation

Planned maintenance: Partial plant shutdown for repair (confined space access)

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The DBB-SAVER was used to prevent the disassembly of two pipe spools and placing of blind flanges, as was done in the past to grant safe access to a confined space. The pipe spools were difficult to disassemble
(safety) and even more difficult to reassemble, with probability of leakages and rework (safety and environment) due to tension and stress in the piping system, which made alignment difficult.

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As an additional benefit, approximately a week of mechanical work on removing and installing spool pieces has been saved. Despite reducing outage time was not the primary objective, a week of additional shutdown time of a major part of the Gas Storage facilities could be
prevented as well.

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Only one DBB-SAVER was used to connect to four bleed points simultanuously: one main DBB configuration plus parallel equalization bypass system on both the inlet and outlet side of the vessel.

 

When the DBB-SAVER was used for the first time at the Gas Storage Grijpskerk, a MoC was in place to comply with internal guidelines and safety risk assessments were performed.

NAM, being a Shell operated company, requested Shell to evaluate the technology of the DBB-SAVER for future benefit throughout the company. After thorough review by all relevant Technical Authorities, the DBB-SAVER was approved to be used on all Shell assets, worldwide by Shell’s highest Technical Authority level.

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Result

Increased safety level and prevention of one week of outage time per occasion