Benefits of the Early Application of Joint Integrity During FEED Stage on Construction Projects

Introduction

The bolted connection is a critical and complex component in any pressurized system, on typical Oil and Gas projects there will be many thousands of joints all of which need managing through Design, Fabrication Completion, Commissioning and Operation. The consequences of failure of any individual joint can cause severe Health, Safety, Environmental or Commercial issues. Implementing an up to date flange management strategy based on industry best practices at the FEED stage and in detailed design has a number of benefits, including:

• To achieve planned commissioning and start up schedules.
• To avoid rework throughout the process
• To avoid surprises at start up and achieve no safety or environmental incidents.
• To ensure operational Integrity is established from design through initial assembly through to handover to operations to establish the platform for sustainable leak free performance.
• Satisfy the head contract with clients and asset owners
• To avoid variation claims from fabricators when flange management is applied retrospectively.
• To avoid project overruns when the project regresses into a leak test and repair philosophy.

The flange management system should be based on best practice guidelines and will adopt a cradle to grave approach across all phases, sites and locations involved in the project. A centralised electronic data management system will be developed to provide the information and record system to control and co-ordinate all activities and provide a live tool during all phases which can then be handed over to operations to facilitate long term integrity management of the facility. 

Key Actions in Feed and Detailed Design Â·        

Strategy and Procedures