Management and compliance of electrical equipment in hazardous areas (EEHA) are key safety concerns for oil and gas operators, requiring mandatory compliance around monitoring and reporting.
EEHA regulations relate to work areas in which an explosive atmosphere is present, or may be expected to be present, in which electrical equipment must be suitably rated and effectively earthed to ensure any ignition risks are controlled.
A number of methods have been developed to either protect against the possibility of ignition, or to minimise the risk of ignition.
Whenever flammable liquids, vapours, gases and/or combustible dusts are used, stored, handled, or generated, a hazardous area classification (HCA) is needed to assess the risk of fire and explosion.
Specific Australian Standards designate the requirements for the design, construction, installation, and use of electrical equipment in these areas.
Identifying the various risks of explosions is the first step of effective EEHA management, of which there are many to consider for the oil and gas industry, particularly offshore facilities.
Explosions can occur under certain conditions in the presence of a mixture of air and released hydrocarbon gases, which can be a result of blowouts, the use of inadequate equipment or its malfunction, negligence, lack of training, and poor or incomplete maintenance.
Sources of ignition can include naked flames, electrical sparks, static electricity, hot surfaces, friction, ionising radiation, ultrasound, and hot gases.
A key aspect of effective EEHA management in oil and gas is arc flash hazard analysis, which assesses the risks around light and heat being generated from an electrical explosion or discharge.
Ageing explosion-protected electrical equipment in hazardous areas, both onshore and offshore, can become a potential concern for operators and maintenance supervisors, as their degradation can lead to eventual failure to meet certification requirements and possibly even catastrophic failure.
Equipment can be affected by corrosion, water ingress and inadequate gasket/seal protection, degradation of plastics due to UV or other environmental factors, and the absence of adequate labelling or identification of equipment to confirm its type of protection related to its location.
A best practice EEHA approach would include a user friendly system for all stakeholders, improved efficiency through maximising inspection time, closing the gap on reporting time, creating a clear path for trackability of inspection and rectification statuses, streamline inspection records, and remove the need for manual entry and updating of records.
A study conducted by CSIRO researchers last year investigated the use of robotic inspection techniques for hazardous areas on oil and gas installations, finding the efficiency gained was estimated to be double that of manually inspecting equipment.
The authors wrote: “The requirement for hazardous area inspections is a mandatory, licence to operate, requirement for oil and gas installations and requires a significant resources and maintenance budget.
“The conventional requirement is to inspect every item of hazardous area electrical equipment once every four years – in Woodside Energy’s Australian assets alone, there are over 150,000 items requiring inspection.”
While the technique is constrained due to it requiring inspectors to be continually monitoring the inspections, the researchers suggested that future innovations around machine learning would allow the robots to autonomously inspect equipment items and report anomalies based on changes from previous inspections.