Case study: Pipe inspection and foreign object retrieval at natural gas compression station

A construction company building a compression station for a newly built natural gas plant rented a camera from Atlas Inspection Technologies. Upon conducting cursory inspections of process pipes, the inspection team found a significant amount of slag and debris. The customer was concerned about contamination and decided the entire piping system spreading over several miles needed to be inspected and evaluated. The plant was set to go online in a few weeks. A team of two Atlas technicians arrived on site from Seattle, WA and Sacramento, CA within 48 hours of first contact to direct the inspection program. The customer rented 12 inspection cameras which the Atlas team trained camera operators on, none of whom had any prior remote visual inspection experience.

Several problematic pipe and spool sections were discovered and noted, but most significant was the presence of a 5/8” nut inside a six-inch pipe going into the compression station discovered during the inspection. Atlas was able to successfully retrieve the foreign object using the camera and a magnetic retrieval tool mounted on sections of an interlocking push rod. The customer noted that the discovery and retrieval of this object more than paid for Atlas’ service. Within 72 hours of arriving on site, nearly all of the facility had been inspected.

Special considerations and challenges included:

• The job site was extremely busy, as crews from multiple companies were working twelve-hour shifts to complete the facility by the deadline.
• None of the camera operators Atlas was responsible for overseeing had any prior experience with remote cameras, and had only limited experience with electronic equipment.
• The job site was in a remote location.
• The compression station contained a wide variety of pipes of different sizes (<1”-12”) and all with multiple 90° bends.
• Since the plant was more than 80% complete, access into the pipe system was difficult, requiring temporary dismantlement of valves and flanges causing delays.
• Due to the nature of the facility, our customer required additional safety training on-site.

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