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The recent ordination, audits and acid tests have marked high profits in Oil and Gas industry with low cost feedstocks and projects showing headway in technology. The refineries in the UK and Asian countries are now focusing towards a hike in production of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel with the wide application of state the art techniques. Also new automation is anticipated in extracting/processing the natural gas and recasting it to other hydrocarbons. With this, safety is becoming a prime root and a tough heyday for survival of Oil and Gas refineries in today’s market. The heart of sound cable terminations/connections in Oil and Gas refineries, the cable glands have become a prime means of protection from the uncertain and hazardous environments across the globe. With developments and heavy refinery assignments like increase in conversion capacity, development of Regasification plants, complex refining up-gradation, plant with PVC integration, revamping and refurbishment of refinery, increased production capacity and a complex residue hydrocracking construction, the demand of cable connectors/cable fittings has shown an upward slope. Also the availability of material with on time delivery and short lead times are becoming a cause of main concern at the planning and the execution stage of refinery projects. This article is a highlight to requirements and varied problems faced by Oil and Gas refineries, types of cable glands and cable accessories used by the refineries and technological innovations in cable gland production specially for its usage in refineries.
The history showed petroleum as the crux of the whole story with major refineries coming into existence in Europe during 1950’s and 1970’s. Prior to this, natural gas was the fuel of choice in wide applications. By replacing the coal usage, it had its application in cooking fuel, power generation, shipping, marine and automobile sector.
Today, there are major refineries sitting on the top of the crude by producing petrol, diesel and jet kerosene in the UK. A high yield of production of quality crude products is driving the Oil and Gas refineries to use the advanced hydrocracking and cold installation technologies. Also the proven solutions for uninterrupted energy flow has a wide application of varied cable glands for connecting and terminating the cables to get protection from the harmful climatic reactions.
Requirements of Cable Glands in Refineries:
- The pipelines and surface machinery requires low temperature, UV resistant cable glands to protect it from corrosion.
- A liquid filtration is required for the high flow filter systems that filters workover fluids, brine, amine and other completion fluids.
- Less smoke and no halogen cables for construction of a pipeline in Oil and Gas units requires anti vermin and anti termite features in its cable fittings.
- An optical low or medium voltage cable armored with steel tape is used in liquefaction trains to deliver LNG.
- Other requirements are also addressed for fire protection fluids.
Challenges faced in Oil and Gas Refineries
For tough offshore and onshore mechanics, cable failure proves fatal for many projects. This is marked due to lack of risk identification, inaccurate design, deficiencies and defects in installation methods.
With this, a major challenge faced by Oil and Gas refineries was with low voltage earth continuity. An initiative of the solution to this was found in installing heat shrink cable joints. The material did not react well with the hydrocarbon attack, the filling turned into a sticky paste and even the loopholes were noted in the insulators. The problem was with the wire armours having poor connectivity with the liquid rubber causing armour isolation. With this investigation, varied types of effective cable glands were introduced that well suited the hazardous conditions of Oil and Gas refineries.
Types of Cable Gland for Oil &Gas refineries:
The varied types of Cable connectors include Cold Shrink Cable terminations that are used in harmful flammable conditions as well as in onshore refineries and Resin cable glands used for conditions that require resistance to hydrocarbons. The neoprene, Nitrile, Hypalon and PVC sheaths with Scotchcast submersible as well as offshore cable joints being high in use for drilling activities in refineries like jackups, drill ships and fixed platforms. The risky zone in Oil and Gas sector use cable joints for Metric, AWG power, Scotchcast cable, MCM, communication cable, signal terminators and many more like low and medium voltage energy cable armoured with steel tape.
Technologies in use:
Recent technology for manufacturing of cable connectors used in Oil and Gas refineries is the Cold Shrink Technology that makes the cable gland devoid of naked flames, gas torches and ignition tooling. With its own elasticity, it molds the cable into round without using any other cable accessories. It consists of a plastic coil inside it that is pulled out after it is properly placed in the cable joint. With this, the cold shrink tube shrinks onto the cable that helps to function as a cable terminator. For hydrophobic outdoor cable glands, the use of Silicone rubber is more in preference. Its merits shows quick energy restoration at the time of fault work and uncertain outrages.
Other flexible technology used in producing cable glands for Oil & Gas refineries is the Low Melt Technology. For a variety of corrugated packing and repacking area with quick setting and good ‘hot track’ rich in features like bonding wood, chipboard, plastic and other light gauge metals, this technology is now being used worldwide. Other portable technologies are also high in use, one of which is the Dynamic Messaging System that is used for road and work zone safety.
Thus the risks and shifts in Oil and Gas industry are confronting many challenges to maintain safety measures from hazardous conditions and set standards or short and long term aspects to shape the risk management smoothly. Moreover, the factors that lie at the base of the outlook plan includes a right selection of materials and inputs, proper supply of raw materials needed, on time delivery of products as per the assignment schedules and maintaining quality of products. Lastly the market has drawn attention to the environmental protection also as the increase in oil spills and pollution is at the rim of the basket for protecting human life. With this investigation is heading towards the usage of Eco Friendly products for cable terminations and connections.
