At Statoil’s refinery in Kalundborg, safety is paramount and the production plant must be checked regularly. 

FORCE Technology examines and assesses components on behalf of Statoil’s inspection department and provides the company with an overview of the condition of the production plant.

Statoil conducts planned shutdowns in various positions of the refinery’s pressurised processing equipment in Kalundborg. The company needs condition assessments of e.g. pipes and furnaces, so that safety is always brilliant. The statutory inspections must be performed within a limited amount of time.

Economy - an important factor

”Replacing parts of the plant is very expensive for us. Therefore, it is important to us that you have helped establish whether parts of the plant may run for another approved period of time. The question is whether to perform a huge repair immediately or whether the component may last for some months or even years still.

We would rather plan major production shutdowns, and it means a lot that we are able to continue operations today instead of in two weeks”, says Claus Peter Christoffersen, Engineer – Equipment Inspector.

In this connection, it is important to Statoil that such inspections are non-destructive, so that parts from the plant will not be cut to pieces unless absolutely necessary and maintenance costs will not increase unnecessarily. The results of the inspections are required rather quickly, as a plant shutdown is extremely costly.

Like a medical examination

”We need to know whether the plant is alright or not. It is similar to a medical examination, during which tests have been made and you await the answers from a laboratory. In this case however, we deal with steel and FORCE Technology has professional and experienced staff and a competent metallurgical laboratory in which to perform the examinations and conclude on the results”, continues Claus Peter Christoffersen.

”FORCE Technology is always a professional and reliable company and we can trust the results we get. We have to make sure that the plant is always safe and we also need the results to document to the authorities, how our inspection programmes ensure that the processing equipment is in good and safe condition”, ends Claus Peter Christoffersen.