Ex Inspections – A journey for maintenance engineers
Copyright Material PCIC Europe
Paper No. PCIC Europe am-25
Shailesh Chauhan
Shell Project &Technology
Stavanger
Norway
Abstract – Ex installations are safety critical elements.
Projects still fail to deliver a good quality Ex installation
mostly due to lack of proper planning and execution of the
Ex inspections during commissioning phase. The poor
quality of Ex installation delivered to the maintenance
organization becomes a nightmare as the maintenance
organization is neither resourced nor does it have
adequate budget to handle this challenge. This paper will
discuss the Ex inspection journey of a new non-ATEX site
where Ex inspections and Ex equipment records were not
properly handled during the project phase. No Ex dossier
was delivered as a part of the project. The main
challenges faced by the maintenance staff included Ex
competency, Ex Inspection strategy, resources
constraints and access issues.
Over a period of years the site developed a robust
competency development process, overcame resources
and access issues to deliver a high quality Ex inspection
campaign. The journey includes some experiments to
overcome the access issues for the Ex equipment
installed at an inaccessible height without installing
expensive scaffolding. An interesting use of abseilers to
execute Ex close inspections and prepare Ex register is
discussed with details.
Various experiences and lessons learned during the four
year journey are shared in this paper.
Index Terms — Ex equipments, Rope Access,
Abseiling, Ex Inspection, Ex Maintenance.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the Oil & Gas Industry, during the project development
phases a careful consideration is given to the layout of
electrical/instrument equipment. However, it is not always
technically feasible to install all equipment in a non-
hazardous area (Safe Areas). Thus for this reason risk
mitigating measures are undertaken which mainly
includes installation of “Ex” type equipment in hazardous
areas, the special design of this type of equipment
minimizes the risk of it becoming an ignition source
causing an explosion.
It is therefore essential for reasons of process safety that,
throughout the life of such installations, the integrity
associated with the special design is preserved by regular
inspections & maintenance.
The IEC standards 60079-14 and 60079-17 provide
guidance and requirements for installation, inspection and
maintenance of electrical equipment in explosive gas
atmospheres. The latest revision of IEC 60079-14 (Nov
2013 edition) standard contains the following newly added
specific requirements related to initial Ex inspection.
1.0 Initial inspection: Equipment shall be installed in
accordance with its documentation. It shall be
ensured that replaceable items are of the correct
type and rating. On completion of the erection
and prior to first use, initial detailed inspection of
the equipment and installation shall be carried out
in accordance with Annex C, which is based on
the “detailed” grade of inspection in IEC 60079-
17.
2.0 Additional installation documents required as part
of the verification dossier.
(i) records of the initial inspection (Annex C)
(ii) installer’s/qualified person’s declaration
The verification dossier is required as per above standard
to ensure that any installation complies with the relevant
equipment certificate as well as with IEC 60079-14
standard and any other requirements specific to the plant
on which the installation takes place.
The “detailed” grade inspection of an Ex equipment
requires the equipment to be opened/dismantled for a
thorough inspection and checks. The equipment needs to
be in a de-energized state for the reasons of safety.
Significant numbers of the lighting and electric heat
tracing equipments are installed at an inaccessible height.
They require scaffolding or other means to safely reach
the equipment for detailed inspections.
If detailed inspections are planned after the plant is in
operation, then to de-energize and take an equipment out
of service (e.g. process critical heat tracing) could be
challenging. To install scaffolding for Ex inspections in a
running plant would be much more expensive and
dependent on operations clearance.
The ideal opportunity for detailed inspections for Ex
equipment is available during construction &
commissioning phase of a project as part of the initial
inspections. The equipment is easily available in a de-
energized state. The means of access used for
equipment installation are still available.
The future Ex inspections become efficient and effective if
the initial inspections are carried out thoroughly and
inspection records are properly transferred and
maintained. Once the equipment state is known, the
optimal equipment inspection strategy could be decided
per the guidance available in IEC 60079-17.
 II. CHALLENGES FACED AT A NEW NON-ATEX
SITE
A. Background
A new Oil & Gas project was completed and the facility
was handed over to operations. When the electrical
maintenance team took over the electrical installations, no
initial inspections records were available for the Ex
equipment. The Ex register containing total inventory list
of Ex electrical equipment of the site was even not
available. During the project design phase, the initial Ex
inspections and relevant record keeping requirements
were not properly defined in the EPC contract scope of
work. Hence the EPC contractor did not give proper
attention to initial Ex inspection planning and execution.
When the issue was identified during the operation
handover it was too late for EPC to act on. Ultimately the
project failed to deliver good quality initial Ex inspections
and the inspections records along with an Ex register.
Most of the electrical maintenance staff was hired from a
local market with gaps in their Ex competency.
B. Ex Maintenance Strategy
A Computerized Maintenance Management System
(CMMS) was being used by the organization to manage
all maintenance activities. To confirm that the state of all
electrical Ex equipment installed at site met the required
integrity standards, Ex close inspections for 100%
population of electrical Ex equipments were planned. The
plan included preparation of the Ex register along with the
Ex close inspection activities. Once the 100% population
is inspected and the state of equipment is known, the plan
is to continue with only sample close inspections, per the
requirements of IEC 60079-17.
A dedicated team of 3 competent persons (supervisor + 2
electrical technicians) was approved by the site
management for the task. In absence of an Ex equipment
inventory, the Ex inspections were planned per each
process unit areas in the plant. The Ex inspections
activities were planned such as to cover 100% Ex
installations (Electrical) in a period of 3 years. The task of
planned 100% close inspections for about 22000
electrical equipments required about 3 years to complete.
In the meantime to mitigate the risk of ignition due to a
defective Ex equipment the continuous supervision
requirements per IEC 60079-17 were implemented at site
in addition to the normal periodic inspections. The
operations staff members were trained for Ex visual
inspections. The training package included some basic
theory on Ex equipment design features, type of Ex
inspections, real life photographs (from other Oil & Gas
facilities) of different kind of Ex defects they were
expected to see in the field. Any defects noticed during
the operator round were recorded in the CMMS and
operator field round log book. Once the defects were in
CMMS it will be prioritized for corrective maintenance
based on the nature of defect observed. They were also
trained to implement the immediate risk reduction
measures e.g. for lighting fixtures or junction boxes
observed with a water ingress, the power circuit will be
isolated immediately until the repair job is completed. For
each process area one operations field operator was
carrying out Ex visual inspection in each shift (12 hours)
along with his normal operations tasks.
The detailed inspections were embedded into corrective
maintenance activities plans as opportunity maintenance.
E.g. during lamp replacement the Ex lighting fixture were
subjected to the detailed inspections. Similarly during
bearing replacement activities the motors would undergo
the detailed inspection activities.
C. Ex Competency
In order to address the competency issues all electrical
persons involved in Ex inspections activities were sent to
the local government-approved Ex training center. The
supervisors & engineers were sent overseas for an
international recognized Ex training.
To sustain continuous development of Ex competency on
a long term basis a contract was awarded to train the
local electrical trainers on – an internationally recognized
Ex course. An international recognized training service
provider delivered a “Train the Trainer” programme. The
package included supply of theory class training material
and Ex booths for the practical training. The training
service provider first provided Ex training to the local
electrical trainers. Once they passed assessment they
started delivering in-house Ex training program.
D. Access issues for Ex equipments installed at an
inaccessible height
The close inspections activities were progressing very
well for the Ex equipments installed at accessible height
and ground locations. The main challenge was associated
with the access to the equipments installed at
inaccessible heights. This includes mostly lighting fixtures
and Electric Heat Tracing (EHT) equipment. Erections of
scaffolding seem to be the only option to access this
equipment. The estimates indicated the need for huge
scaffolding structures throughout the process area would
be required to complete the Ex inspection activities.
In the meantime an incident was reported at the site
where a top cover fell down from an energized power
point (EHT) installed at inaccessible height. Normally the
power point cover is tied to the body with a wire string and
can only be opened with a special tool. The plant
vibrations cannot make it loose. This incident raised a
serious concern about the Ex inspection process during
the commissioning phase.
The incident increased the urgency of inspections for
equipments installed at a height and implementation of
corrective actions if any required.
A local rope access contractor was working at the site for
mechanical activities. They were asked if they can carry
Ex inspections at inaccessible height. On further
discussions confirmed that there were a few rope access
persons in the team with an electrical background.
However they did not have the required Ex competency
for the Ex inspections.
Resources, time and cost comparison we ere made for the
scaffolding and rope access options. The
e rope access or LE II
TABL
abseiling was a clear winner based on the comparison.
The man-hour comparison is shown below w in TABLE I. TYPE OF EX DEFE
ECTS OBSERVED

Type of Defects Items %

TABLE I Cable Gland related issues 634 63%
Water inside lamp (loose cover) 14 1%
MANHOUR comparison of the access options Loose or missing blanking plugs 54 5%
Loose power point covers 298 30%
Scaffolding Vs Abseilers MANHOUR Com
mparison Damaged enclosure 6 0.60%
Item Description Scaffoldiing Abseilers Total 1006 100%
Estimated MANHOUR required 21120 2880

The rope access team (members with electrical

background) was trained by in-house training programme RE II
FIGUR
on Ex close inspections (checks per IEC C 60079-17) and
minor repairs (e.g. tighten the loose co overs, install Ex TYPE OF EX DEFE
ECTS OBSERVED
blinding plugs on the open entries etc.). The
T training was
restricted to only the type of Ex equipm ment which they
were expected to see at a height. Water ingress into
power point due to
a loose top cover

FIGURE I

Rope Access Team in action

n

Missing blanking
plugs on a power
point & a lighting
fixture

Water Ingress into

lighting fixtures.

Loose EHT power

point top covers.

For quality checks, photographs were takken from different

sides before and after inspection / minor repairs and kept
in records as a future reference. The innspection reports
and photographs for each piece of Ex equipment were
reviewed at the end of everyday byy a competent
supervisor.
The defects found during the inspection campaign were
prioritized for corrective maintenance acttivities according
to the nature of defects. Following table (Table II) shows
nature and percentage of defects atttributed to poor
workmanship during installation and ina adequate quality
checks.
CLUSIONS
III. CONC
Initial Ex inspections were no ot given the due attention in
the project phase. Lack of proper planning and
preparations in the early stage es of project resulted in poor
Ex installation. Rectification in
n the operate phase involves
a potential process safety exposure and at a huge
maintenance cost and efforrts. Pre-investing time and
resources to clarify the exactt inspection scope, planning
the inspection activities with regards to other activities,
and sourcing competent insttaller & inspectors can pay
back the financial investment many times over. In
addition, the Ex inspection activities will run smoother
throughout the life of an assett.
Following are the recommendations for the future projects
based on the lessons learnt from the above site
experiences.

1.0 The Ex inspections should appear as a discrete

activity on the project schedule with appropriate mile
stones against the target dates. In addition, its
interaction with all other activities such as pre-
commissioning, removal of scaffold, removal of
isolations, etc. must be detailed in the schedule.
2.0 In the early design phase of the project discipline
engineers (Electrical and Instrumentations) should
prepare an Ex inspection plan. The plan would
identify requirements of applicable national or
international standards for the initial Ex inspections,
required resources, the competency requirements,
list of documents to be included in the Ex
verification dossier for various phases of the project,
inspection check lists, inspection records, QA/QC
points.
3.0 The scope of work for initial inspections should be
clearly defined in the EPC contract based on the Ex
inspection plan developed in the project. This will
make sure that the contractor clearly understands
the initial Ex inspections requirements and
deliverables.

IV. REFERENCES

[1] IEC 60079, Explosive atmospheres –

Part 14: Electrical installations design, selection and
erection.
[2] IEC 60079, Explosive atmospheres –
Part 17: Electrical installations inspection and
maintenance.

V. VITA

Shailesh graduated from the University of Rajasthan

(Now known as National Institute of Technology- Jaipur,
India) in 1997 with a BE degree. He has been working in
the Oil & Gas industry for more than 16 years. He has a
lot of field experience under his belt from various electrical
engineering maintenance and projects roles. Since 2006
he is working for SHELL where he started as a consultant
electrical engineer. He was most recently Head of
Electrical at Russia’s first LNG plant.
shaileshmchauhan@gmail.com