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Trade Article - India Refinery Job Focuses on Customer Service
Deadline Drives Handling of Flare Tie-In
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Monsoon season in India can be deadly, but it also can stop day-to-day activities of running a business. A petroleum company in Mumbai [Bombay], India, was facing the monsoon season with a question of whether or not they would be able to finish work on a tie-in job at the company's refinery before the rains started.
The company's refinery had only one flare and the company needed to install a second one as backup. The question was, how could they do the tie-in flare without shutting down the refinery's operations?
T.D. Williamson, Inc., was asked to bid on the job by the Indian company. Initially, TDW was only bidding as a sub-contractor, but because of their track record, the customer asked TDW to consider bidding as the general contractor instead. Since that's not typical, project leaders thought about what that would mean for TDW and the decision was made to take the risk.
The project consisted of a 42-inch (1,067 mm.) hot tap in to the existing flare line to tie-in the new flare. This particular Indian petroleum company had never attempted a hot tapping and plugging job of this extent. If anything went wrong, the refinery would be forced to shutdown, which would result in a substantial loss of revenue for the company.
In addition to the 42-inch (1,067 mm) hot tap, TDW's proposal to the customer included work consisting of civil engineering, structural labor, piping projects, field welding, nondestructive testing, import/export regulation compliance, use of local labor and services, piping design and much more.
The existing flare line was at a height of 26 feet, or eight meters, and the initial design for civil foundation was based on the additional load being put on the 42-inch (1,067 mm) flare line. But when actual trenching started workers noticed that the soil condition was very poor. Due to the close proximity to the shoreline (the work site was three to five feet above sea level), water started gushing even at a depth of three feet. Therefore, TDW had to redesign the structural design with time running out.
TDW used a special T-1200 XL tapping machine with modified Gear Ratio to tap 42-inch (1,067 mm), and this posed additional problems as the distance between two flare lines did not permit the crew to insert the measuring rod. This problem was sorted out by dismantling a branch pup piece from the new flare line.
Work started in March and had to be completed by May or monsoon season would be in full swing. In order to accomplish this task, TDW technicians had to take advantage of the Indian company's local buying leverage to purchase a valve. The process was expedited by TDW fabricating an exact fitting and shipping it to India.
Due to the tight completion schedule, TDW opted to air freight all equipment, including the T-1200 XL, with the total weight shipped being approximately eight tons. TDW qualified four welders to perform online welding. Welding of the fittings was a critical part of the project since workers had to make sure alignment was correct and that space was available for each fitting.
Technicians worked around the clock to complete the project on time, with the job being completed one week before the monsoons hit. This hot tapping job in India exhibited TDW's top-notch customer service. When the customer has an idea or suggestion, TDW listens and takes the comments into serious consideration.
TDW's service is critical to the success of a project, and in India, the customer was comfortable with the knowledge and experience TDW employees brought to the project. Without that comfort, the relationship cannot be strengthened.
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