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It is no secret oil and gas industrial facilities set more stringent requirements for grounding and lightning protection, which is to be taken into account when designing and installing such systems.
Metal parts of the equipment that may be energised should be equipped with visible elements for connecting the protective ground. All the metal equipment, storage tanks, gas pipelines, product pipelines, handling facilities, and ventilation systems both indoors and outdoors should be connected to the ground loop to protect these against secondary effects of lightning and static discharge. Stand-alone machines and tanks should have their independent grounding electrodes or be connected to the common ground loop. It is not allowed to use product pipeline for reducing the total grounding resistance.
In order to protect oil and gas industrial facilities, you can use ZANDZ electrolytic grounding system which is several times more efficient than a modular one.
Electrolytic grounding system can be installed in rocky soils and permafrost regions that have greater soil resistivity.
Sample solution for oil or gas industrial facilities:
Apart from the guidelines above, the regulations also impose requirements on constant checkups for electrical equipment at drilling rigs and oil and gas field facilities: resistivity is to be measured and visible parts of a grounding device are to be inspected while compiling an onsite report and a certificate of acceptance. Needless to say, an important factor in carrying out such checkups and inspections is the availability of facilities. Experts require unrestricted access to measure all the grounding devices at the facilities.
It is not so hard to arrange for such an access with the help of some inspection wells.
You can turn to ZANDZ experts to make an informed choice of grounding and lightning protection systems.
Related Links:
- Grounding rules
- Sample solutions for large facilities
- A number of webinars on issues that arise when designing grounding and lightning protection systems
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