Industries
Refining and Petrochemicals
Fitness-for-Service and Plant Life Extension
An isomerisation reactor at HMEL Bathinda saw 710 °C. The Fitness-for-Service assessment certified it fit to run, and it ran to 2019 without a shutdown; the same team answered the VGO unit fire in 2024.
Request a QuoteIn brief
TCR inspects, tests and assesses the static equipment of refineries and petrochemical complexes, from the crude unit and FCCU to the hydroprocessing trains and utilities, for Reliance, Indian Oil, BPCL, HPCL, HMEL and other Indian refiners. When a reactor runs hot or a unit catches fire, the answer is fitness-for-service and fire damage assessment to API 579-1, and TCR field teams have read 1,200 in-situ replicas at Reliance Jamnagar in a single 15-day turnaround.
Key takeaways
- 8 refinery unit clusters, from the crude unit complex to utilities and support, and 8 families of damage mechanism are covered below.
- Damage and fitness-for-service work is reported against API RP 571 3rd edition (2020), API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 4th edition (2021) and BS 7910; the full standards matrix is below.
- 10 marquee engagements are documented on this page, among them a three-year failure investigation rate contract covering HMEL's full Bathinda refinery and petrochemical complex, June 2025 to June 2028.
Overview
India’s major refiners, among them Reliance, Indian Oil, BPCL, HPCL, HMEL, MRPL, CPCL and Nayara, route integrity work through TCR, alongside Saudi Aramco, SABIC and Shell. At Reliance Jamnagar, TCR fielded 1,200 in-situ metallographic replicas in a single 15-day turnaround.
- Failures investigated
- Fires and process upsets in the CDU/VDU, FCCU, hydrogen-manufacturing units, REAC, reactors and their internals; storage-tank floor and shell failures. TCR investigates metallurgical degradation, creep, high-temperature hydrogen attack, polythionic and chloride stress corrosion cracking, sulphidation, naphthenic acid corrosion, reheat cracking, fastener detachments and fatigue, with in-situ replica teams reading the microstructure on site and failure analysis establishing the root cause.
- Marquee project
- At HMEL Bathinda the isomerisation reactor 503-R-001 ran a 710 °C temperature excursion. TCR's Fitness-for-Service assessment certified it fit for service, and the unit operated to 2019 with no shutdown.
Industry Context
Indian refining is in a heavy capital cycle. IOCL alone runs a large annual capital expenditure programme, with brownfield expansions at Panipat, Gujarat and Barauni, and it treats whole-refinery turnaround maintenance as a formal institutional practice.
- Capacity path: approximately 256 million metric tonnes per annum today, on a declared path to over 310 million by 2028 to 2030.
- Projects in flight: the IOCL Panipat 25 MMTPA expansion, the IOCL Paradip Petrochemical Complex, the BPCL Bina expansion to 11 MMTPA with its petrochemical complex, the HPCL Barmer 9 MMTPA grassroots refinery, the Numaligarh Refinery 9 MMTPA expansion and the CPCL Cauvery Basin 9 MMTPA grassroots refinery, with debottlenecking and HSD-quality projects at IOCL Mathura, IOCL Koyali, MRPL, BPCL Mumbai, BPCL Kochi and HPCL Mumbai.
- Fleet age: the average Indian refinery is roughly 30 years old.
- GCC: the Saudi Aramco and SABIC ecosystem, including SATORP, YASREF, Petro Rabigh, LUBEREF, MARAFIQ, SADARA, Sipchem and Advanced Petrochemical, where TCR Arabia's refining and petrochemical work also moves onto the Master Gas System, Jafurah and downstream petrochemical units.
- Three pressures: opportunity crudes that are heavier, more sour and more contaminated; co-processing of waste-oil-derived and bio-feedstock streams; and decarbonisation capex, from carbon capture at FCC and SMR units to energy-efficiency projects and hydrogen-network expansion.
Every rupee of that spend rides on pressure equipment that must be inspected during construction, watched through every run cycle, and defended at every turnaround. TCR serves that demand at each stage: PMI and weld NDT at the project stage, turnaround inspection manpower and advanced NDT in operation, and FFS, RLA and failure analysis when equipment ages. The ARTiS reference list alone spans eight IOCL refineries plus HPCL, BPCL, HMEL, BORL, Nayara and CPCL.
Co-processing brings free-fatty-acid corrosion to hydroprocessing trains and chloride into the FCC; TCR's corrosion and sour service laboratory and corrosion-monitoring work carry the qualification. Green hydrogen widens the reach of API 941 high temperature hydrogen attack assessment, as it does in power and fertilisers (see Energy Transition). Carbon capture in refining brings amine-system corrosion, MEA degradation and the qualification of FCC flue-gas CCS retrofits, and refinery efficiency capex (energy audit, fired-heater conversion, exchanger upgrade) feeds TCR's engineering consulting.
Plant Sections We Inspect
TCR inspects the static equipment of a refinery cluster by cluster: the crude unit complex, the conversion units, the hydrogen-bearing services and the treatment units among them. Storage tanks, heat exchangers, pressure vessels, columns, reactors, transfer lines and piping are in scope; rotating-equipment field service is not.
| Unit Cluster | Key Equipment |
|---|---|
| Crude Unit Complex (CDU/VDU) | Atmospheric column, vacuum column, crude preheat exchangers, desalter, furnace radiant and convection coils, transfer lines |
| Conversion Units | FCCU (riser, regenerator, main fractionator), Delayed Coker (drums, switching valves, blowdown), Visbreaker, Hydrocracker, RFCC |
| Hydrogen-Bearing Services | HDT, HDS, HCU (reactors, recycle gas compressor circuits, makeup hydrogen, amine treaters), MHC |
| Treatment | Amine recovery (regenerator, lean and rich amine exchangers), Sulphur Recovery Unit (Claus reactor, condenser train, tail gas treater), Caustic treaters, Merox |
| Light Ends and Finishing | Catalytic Reformer (CCR or semi-regen), Isomerisation, Alkylation (HF or sulphuric), polymerisation |
| Storage and Movements | API 650 atmospheric tanks (crude, intermediate, finished), API 620 low-pressure (slop, reflux), refrigerated LPG / LNG / NH3 (where co-located) |
| Petrochemical Extensions | Aromatics complex, olefins cracker, polymer reactors (HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PP), MEG, PTA |
| Utilities and Support | Cooling water systems, BFW, deaerator, package boilers, flare and relief network, instrument air, hydrogen network, nitrogen, fuel gas |
Damage Mechanisms We Investigate
TCR classifies refinery damage to API RP 571 3rd edition (March 2020), which catalogues approximately 67 to 70 mechanisms; the families investigated in refining and petrochemical service are below.
| Category | Mechanisms |
|---|---|
| High-temperature corrosion | Sulphidation (Couper-Gorman curves), naphthenic acid corrosion (TAN-driven), high-temperature H2/H2S corrosion (modified McConomy), HTHA per API 941 (Nelson curves), oxidation, decarburisation, carburisation, metal dusting |
| Aqueous corrosion and cracking | Polythionic acid SCC (300-series stainless above ~500 °F service), chloride SCC, caustic SCC and embrittlement, amine SCC, ammonia SCC (300-series), wet H2S damage (HIC, SOHIC, SSC), sour water corrosion |
| Low-temperature aqueous attack | CO2 corrosion (sweet), under-deposit corrosion, microbiologically influenced corrosion |
| Mechanical and fatigue | Thermal fatigue (cyclic units, switching cokers, fired-heater coils), mechanical fatigue (vibrating piping, pump suction lines), creep (fired heater coils, reformer tubes, hydroprocessor reactors), reheat cracking |
| Thermal degradation and metallurgical | Spheroidisation, graphitisation, temper embrittlement (2.25Cr-1Mo and 3Cr-1Mo above ~371 °C), 885 °F embrittlement (12Cr ferritics), sigma phase (300-series stainless and duplex), 475 °C embrittlement |
| Localised attack | Pitting under deposit, crevice corrosion, dew-point corrosion, ammonium chloride salt deposition |
| Refractory and lining | FCC riser refractory abrasion-erosion, SRU reactor refractory degradation, anchor failure |
| Renewable feedstock-specific (emerging) | Free fatty acid corrosion on co-processing units, chloride introduction from waste-oil feedstock, oxygenate cracking |
Standards Coverage Matrix
- Damage and FFS
- API RP 571 3rd ed. (2020); API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 4th ed. (2021); BS 7910; WRC 489 (refining damage mechanisms).
- Inspection codes
- API 510 11th ed. (2022) pressure vessels; API 570 5th ed. (2024) piping; API 653 6th ed. (2024) tanks; API RP 572, RP 574, RP 575; API 941 HTHA; API 530 fired-heater tube design; API 936 refractory.
- RBI / KBA
- API 580 / API 581 4th ed. (January 2025); API RP 584 IOW 2nd ed. (December 2021); CCPS Guidelines for Mechanical Integrity Systems 1st ed.
- Materials
- NACE MR0103 (sulphide stress cracking in refining); NACE MR0175 / ISO 15156 (where sour service is co-located); ASME Section VIII; API 5L; ASTM A335 P5/P9/P22/P91; ASTM A234 WP91; ASTM A691 (high-pressure piping).
- Welding
- ASME Section IX (2023); AWS D1.1; API 1104; API 582.
- NDT-specific
- ASME Section V; ASTM E94, E1742, E709, E165, E1417; ISO 17636; ASTM E2884 (ECT); ASTM E2096 (RFT); ASME V Article 23 (ultrasonic standards, applied to IRIS wall-thickness measurement).
Service Applications Across the TCR Continuum
A refinery buys integrity services against three recurring pressures: damage in operation, time in the turnaround, and material risk in procurement.
In operation, the problem set is high temperature hydrogen attack in hydroprocessing reactors, sulphidation and naphthenic acid corrosion in the crude and vacuum train, polythionic acid stress corrosion cracking that forms in sensitised austenitic internals the moment a unit is opened for shutdown, creep in heater tubes, and corrosion under insulation across the tank farm and piperack. During shutdown and turnaround, the pressure is time: inspection windows are compressed, discovery work erupts mid-turnaround, scaffolding dominates cost, and qualified API 510, API 570, and API 653 inspectors are scarce exactly when every refinery in the region wants them. In procurement, the risk is material: mis-certified alloy at the pipe mill, positive material identification gaps in incoming spools, and long-lead forgings that arrive without credible test evidence. TCR Engineering and TCR Advanced serve all five stages of TCR's Trusted Relationship Model (see Why TCR) against these pressures.
- Stage One, Sourcing and Procurement
- TCR runs factory audits and original equipment manufacturer qualification at pipe mills, forge shops, and valve and fitting vendors, with raw material inspection, sample picking, in-production checks, and loading supervision. Procurement samples are tested in the NABL NABLT0726MH18640 accredited laboratory: mechanical testing per ASTM A370 and ASTM E8/E8M, impact per ASTM E23, sour service qualification through sulphide stress cracking per NACE TM0177-2024 and hydrogen induced cracking per NACE TM0284, intergranular corrosion per ASTM A262, and positive material identification per API RP 578, so that hydrogen service steels and sour service materials per NACE MR0103 enter the plant with defensible evidence.
- Stage Two, Construction and Commissioning
- During unit construction, revamps, and capacity expansion, TCR provides baseline non-destructive testing: phased array ultrasonic testing and time of flight diffraction on thick-wall welds, radiography with robotic crawlers on piping, welder certification and procedure qualification per ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section IX, weldability and consumable evaluation, post-weld heat treatment, and positive material identification on every alloy joint. The output is the baseline data set, thickness grids, weld maps, and material records, against which every later inspection of the unit is measured.
- Stage Three, In-Service
- On-stream, TCR deploys advanced non-destructive testing for high temperature hydrogen attack detection per API RP 941, hydrogen induced cracking mapping, carburisation screening, high temperature corrosion mapping on live equipment, and mid-wall fissure detection, supported by thermography of fired heaters, remote visual inspection, and robotic tools. TCR Advanced builds the risk-based inspection plan per API RP 580 and API RP 581 through the Knowledge-Based Audit method and sets integrity operating windows per API RP 584, so that inspection effort concentrates where damage-mechanism susceptibility per API RP 571 actually sits.
- Stage Four, Shutdown and Turnaround
- In the turnaround window, TCR delivers pipeline and weld inspection, heat exchanger tube inspection, in-situ metallographic replication on heater tubes, reactors, and hot piping by the twelve dedicated field teams, storage tank inspection per API 653 including in-service robotic crawling, coke drum and boiler condition assessment, robotic reformer tube inspection with ARTiS on hydrogen and steam methane reformer units, and turnaround inspection manpower with API 510, API 570, and API 653 qualified inspectors, sized to the shutdown and released when it closes.
- Stage Five, Continuum
- The forward-looking stage converts findings into operating decisions: failure analysis per API RP 585, remaining life assessment of heater tubes per API 530, fitness for service per API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 on hydroprocessing reactors, columns, and vessels, fire damage assessment per API 579-1 Part 11, integrity operating window refinement per API RP 584, engineering design and analysis, and the contract research, including renewable feed and co-processing corrosion studies, that feeds the next procurement cycle.
Named Clients
The refining and petrochemical client base falls into four groups: Indian refiners and petrochemical complexes, GCC operators, international plants, and the equipment OEMs and process licensors behind them.
- India
- Reliance Industries (Jamnagar, Patalganga, Nagothane), Indian Oil Corporation (Panipat, Mathura, Koyali, Paradip, Barauni, Haldia), Bharat Petroleum (Bina, Mumbai, Kochi), Hindustan Petroleum (Mumbai, Visakh, Barmer), HMEL (Bathinda), MRPL, CPCL, Numaligarh Refinery, Nayara Energy, Shell India.
- GCC
- Saudi Aramco, SABIC, SATORP, YASREF, Petro Rabigh, LUBEREF, MARAFIQ, SADARA, Sipchem, Advanced Petrochemical, KNPC (Kuwait), PDO, OQGN, QChem, QatarGas.
- International
- Shell (multiple geographies, sour-service approved), Pemex (Mexico), PetroChina International Iraq FZE, Iraqi Ministry of Oil, Indorama (Nigeria), Binh Son Refining (Vietnam), Casale SA (Switzerland) for licensor scope.
- Equipment OEMs and Licensors
- Cameron International, NOV Inc. (March 2023), GE International, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Casale SA SX3000 (Vendor Code 1000007973, June 2025).
Two engagements anchor the India record. At HMEL's Bathinda refinery and petrochemical complex, TCR Advanced holds a three-year failure investigation rate contract covering the full complex, valid June 2025 to June 2028. At Reliance Industries, Jamnagar, TCR led the damage assessment after the VGO-HT2 fire and fielded 1,200 in-situ metallographic replicas in a fifteen-day turnaround.
Marquee Projects
| Project | Service Anchor | Year |
|---|---|---|
| HMEL Bathinda Isomerisation Reactor 503-R-001 | FFS of temperature excursion (peak 710 °C, 44 minutes above 700 °C); certified fit-for-service; monitored through 2019 with no shutdown | 2012 to 2019 |
| HMEL Bathinda VGO Unit fire response | Fire damage assessment and FFS of the VGO reactor under API 579-1 Part 11 | 2024 |
| HMEL Bathinda three-year failure investigation rate contract | Failure investigation across the full Bathinda refinery and petrochemical complex | 06 June 2025 to 06 June 2028 |
| BPCL Bina | RBI of duplex air fin coolers and piping in the hydrocracker | Multiple |
| Saudi Aramco Jafurah Gas Compression Plants | ECA of 42-inch girth welds per API 1104 Annex A Option 2, on six CTOD tests per pipeline; PWIS Package-1 | 2024 to 2025 |
| Reliance Industries Jamnagar | 1,200 in-situ replicas in 15 days during turnaround | Multiple |
| Petrokemya, KSA | RLA of a fire-tube boiler | 2023 |
| Binh Son Refining, Vietnam | Accelerated creep-rupture testing and Omega method remaining life assessment of heater tubes | 2025 |
| Fertiliser and refinery failure investigations, India | More than 1,000 fertiliser and refinery cases to date | Continuous |
Documents
Download the reference documents for this page. Every file is hosted on this domain and is also listed in the site document library.
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Frequently asked questions
Does TCR provide in-situ metallography during refinery turnarounds?
Yes. TCR's field teams have read 1,200 in-situ replicas at Reliance Jamnagar in a single turnaround, with interpretation delivered inside the turnaround window rather than after laboratory turnaround.
Which refiners use TCR's reformer and heater tube inspection?
The ARTiS reference list spans eight IOCL refineries plus HPCL, BPCL, HMEL, BORL, Nayara and CPCL.
What refinery damage mechanisms does TCR investigate?
High temperature hydrogen attack in hydroprocessing reactors, sulphidation and naphthenic acid corrosion in the crude and vacuum train, polythionic acid stress corrosion cracking in sensitised austenitic internals, creep in heater tubes and corrosion under insulation, anchored to API RP 571 3rd edition (2020).
Can TCR run fitness-for-service on refinery pressure equipment?
Yes. FFS assessments run to API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 4th edition (2021) and BS 7910 on static equipment: storage tanks, heat exchangers, pressure vessels, columns, reactors, transfer lines and piping. TCR does not enter rotating-equipment field service.
Does TCR supply turnaround inspection manpower?
Yes. Turnaround inspection manpower and advanced NDT serve compressed shutdown windows, where qualified API 510, API 570 and API 653 inspectors are scarce exactly when every refinery in the region wants them.