COURSE OVERVIEW

This practical and highly-interactive course includes real-life case studies and exercises where participants will be engaged in a series of interactive small groups and class workshops. 

 

Aboveground atmospheric storage tanks store a diverse variety of liquids used in the hydrocarbon processing industry at oil/gas fields, refineries, petrochemical plants, marine terminals, bulk storage, oil depots and marketing terminals. They are also part of the support facilities in other industries, such as fuel storage tanks at power plants. These tanks have gained importance and visibility in recent years due to failures that have resulted in hydrocarbon spills and environmental impact. Following these incidents, there has been a marked increase in governmental regulation and industry attention to tanks. Therefore, establishing a programme for evaluating the structural integrity of aboveground atmospheric storage tanks has become an important priority. 

 

A tank maintenance, inspection, and integrity evaluation programme can only be effective if it also considers tank design requirements. Recognizing the primary features of these tanks and understanding how they are designed provide the information needed to better understand their maintenance and inspection requirements. The first part of this course focuses on atmospheric storage tank design requirements in accordance with API 650. 

 

Once the basics of storage tank design have been established, the course will turn to inspection and maintenance requirements in accordance with API 653. The course includes slides of actual installations, sample problems, and classroom exercises to illustrate specific points and give course participants the opportunity to practice application of the topics discussed. It is recommended that participants bring copies of API 650 and API 653 to the course. Participants are asked to bring their laptops or hand-held calculators to the course. 

 

This course is intended to give participants a comprehensive understanding of the design, construction, inspection and maintenance of above ground storage tanks which are used in the refining and chemicals industries. It will include an introduction to the API Standard 650 and API Standard 653 and will cover industry practices for long term tank maintenance, inspection and best practices for sustaining operational integrity. The focus of the course will be on introducing work practices for tank operation/inspection/maintenance which are practical and have proven successful in preventing unplanned outages and major incidents.