MISTRAS’ comprehensive turnaround planning, inspection, and maintenance programs are backed by decades of expertise in refinery turnaround execution and management.
Turnarounds are some of the most essential times in refineries and other process plants, but are also responsible for massive portions of a facility’s inspection and maintenance budget.
Turnarounds that run over budget or over schedule have wide-ranging, damaging implications for refineries. These problems can be exacerbated by the need to have multiple, competing on-site teams to complete all the planning, inspection, and maintenance work necessary to get a plant up and running as peak capacity.
MISTRAS simplifies the turnaround process by designing, managing, and executing all aspects of your turnarounds from planning to engineering to inspections to maintenance, with the convenience of a single contractor.
We develop turnaround inspection and maintenance plans designed to address maximize safety practices, minimize environmental hazards, and ensure each client is in compliance with legislative and regulatory standards.
MISTRAS designs and executes turnaround programs with a few core objectives:
- Reduce maintenance costs
- Reduce downtime by shortening T/A duration
- Extend run length between shutdowns and T/As
- Improve safety and overall reliability
Among others, MISTRAS offers API 510, 570, and 653 inspection services for assets and facilities throughout the oil & gas, petrochemical, and process industries. With an expansive technician base located all over the world, we can conduct inspections and perform engineering reviews for any local, federal, or governmental regulations.
API Turnaround Planning Consultations
The goal of turnaround planning is to ensure that plant and refinery inspections are completed as safely and efficiently as possible, and that any necessary inspections are prioritized and performed with regard to historical equipment data and known damage mechanisms.
MISTRAS helps our clients meet these objects by offering dedicated engineers with decades of experience in anticipating damage mechanisms and developing targeting turnaround execution plans.
Our Turnaround Planning teams pride themselves on individually developing the most effective inspection test plan for each client. Starting up to a year before the planned turnaround, we conduct inspections to identify existing problem areas, and review past inspection histories and trends to pin down issues that are likely to re-occur. This is a necessary step because unanticipated damages are often the culprit of turnarounds going over-budget over-schedule.
As the turnaround execution plan takes shape, we work with our clients to:
- Define the major inspection discovery work that will be required during the shutdown
- Anticipate mechanical repairs that may arise during the discovery process
- Establish objectives and milestones
- Navigate any organizational or situational barriers.
Refinery Turnaround Inspection Services
Once the turnaround begins, we provide high-quality non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection services for all refinery assets, including:
- Piping
- Storage Tanks
- Rotating Equipment
- Pressure Vessels
- Valves
To adapt our inspection plans to each client’s specific needs, we deploy technologies and make use of a wide variety of traditional and advanced non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection techniques, including, but not limited to:
API 510 Inspections for Pressure Vessels
MISTRAS has gained an extensive wealth of experience planning and performing API 510 inspection services for in-service pressure vessels, deploying a wide array of solutions to identify signs of internal and external corrosion, erosion, cracking, weld flaws, wall thinning, and other metallurgical discontinuities.
Adhering to API 510 guidelines during turnarounds, MISTRAS performs Fitness-For-Service (FFS), Probability of Failure (POF), and rate of corrosion calculations to ensure pressure vessels remain in-service, in-market, and without risks of damage to both physical and human assets.
API 570 Inspections for Piping Circuits
MISTRAS Group adheres to the specified guidelines of API 570 for the inspection and maintenance of in-service piping circuits and pipelines in oil & gas and petrochemical facilities.
MISTRAS ensures piping systems operate in compliance mechanical integrity (MI) guidelines.
API 653 Inspections for Aboveground Storage Tanks
MISTRAS’ API 653 turnaround inspection services are designed to help refinery aboveground storage tank (AST) operators identify signs of damage including corrosion, leakage, cracking, and wall-thinning.
MISTRAS’ trained and certified turnaround API inspectors help you achieve API 653 compliancy by conducting on-site, non-intrusive inspections to the tank’s outer shell, tank floor, annular ring, and roof, without the expense of entering, draining, or shutting down a tank.
Turnaround Maintenance Services
MISTRAS offers multi-disciplined technicians that are often able to repair minor damages found during the inspection process.
By utilizing rope access technicians, we’re able to inspect and repair at-height assets without the use of scaffolding, enhancing safety by reducing on-site equipment footprint.
During turnarounds, MISTRAS performs:
Turnaround Inspection Data Reporting
At the conclusion of the turnaround process, MISTRAS produces a comprehensive inspection report for each piece of equipment involved in the turnaround.
These reports detail the inspection results and the work that was completed, inform the client of any anticipated work to be expected at the next service interval, and recommend solutions moving forward. This data can also be input into MISTRAS’ Plant Condition Management Software (PCMS).
Clients can then use these reports for both the immediate and long-term management of their key operating assets.
