Realized Benefits from RBI Implementation - A Recap of the Fall 2018 Meeting of the Minds Roundtable Discussion

This past November in Orlando, Florida, Inspectioneering and PinnacleART hosted a roundtable discussion for a select group of leading mechanical integrity and reliability experts from the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries. This bi-annual forum, called the “Meeting of the Minds,” explored the concept of risk-based inspection (RBI) and whether operators are realizing actual benefits from implementing RBI at their facilities.

Many questions were posed during the course of the roundtable discussion. Below is a quick recap of some of the key takeaways.

Are sites measuring any RBI benefits (e.g., lower turnaround costs by not inspecting lower risk equipment; fewer fixed equipment mechanical integrity leaks and failures; improved turnaround planning process)?

Participants had varying takes on the impact of RBI on turnaround costs. Many participants have noticed that, after RBI implementation, inspection program costs tended to increase with the very next turnaround, perhaps as a result of unsound legacy inspection programs and the identification of damage mechanisms that were not previously recognized. With subsequent turnarounds, inspection costs tended to decrease below the baseline. A few participants witnessed immediate cost savings after their initial RBI implementation.