Introduction
The story of the inspection techniques in the oil & gas industry is full of twists & turns, because the entire procedure is too vast to be a simple affair. The external regulation here is comparatively more stringent because it strives to keep the equipment running successfully & the workplace totally secure for workers. Thus, it requires the best internal audit software. Let me give you a brief idea of how the industry works. This will be an indicator of the seriousness of the issue – It involves drilling, reservoir maintenance, well servicing, refining, & transporting petroleum products to thousands of miles – Is it not really a serious matter? The scale & complexity of the processes makes it really challenging to satisfy the industry standards for internal audit & inspections for the oil & gas industry. In this blog, what I am going to do is take you through 6 inspection techniques which are widely used in the Oil & Gas industry to be compliant with the standards. But let me tell you one thing – you always need to keep an audit & inspection software, which can automate oil & gas internal audits, along with you while you use these techniques.
6 Smart Inspection Techniques
- Visual Inspection
This is a simple & inexpensive method which doesn’t require any major equipment & can well detect flaws & defects. A well trained & experienced technician is likely to detect improper installations, structural defects, welding flaws, cracks & corrosions by mere inspection of the equipment & structure. A cloud survey software makes the process free of manual error.
- Ultrasonic techniques
This method of inspection utilizes sound waves whose frequencies are above the audible range for the human ear. The ultrasonic equipment used in the process has piezo-electric effect with the help of which one can transmit & receive from within the equipment. This technique helps to detect the internal structure of the equipment as you can easily examine thickness changes, cracks, voids, delaminations & other types of structural or material defects. A noticeable fault of this method is the readings & the observations are dependent on the gut of the technician making it difficult to arrive at a non-subjective evaluation. Nevertheless, use of the best survey software for the oil & gas industry standardizes the process.
- Testing with X-Ray/Gamma Ray
Radiography is the name of this method of inspection which uses X-Rays or Gamma Rays (electromagnetic radiation) to test the internal structure & integrity of the material. The good point about this method is that these rays can travel even through concrete & ceramics along with metals because of having shorter wavelengths. In the Oil & Gas industry, this is a common method to inspect pipe joins & pressure vessels. Here again, an internal audit software, which is best in oil and gas surveying tools, will be helpful.
- Thermography
This is also a very popular inspection technique in the Oil & Gas industry which is based on the temperature readings. In this method, technicians measure the temperature difference between the pipeline & the surrounding environment to detect pipeline insulation defects & oil or gas leakage. Let me tell you one thing, this method of inspection is quite less complicated & cost effective. Using an internal audit & inspection software to use in the petroleum industry makes the process more effective as you can automate the observation recording.
- Acoustic emissions
Acoustic emissions are used to detect leakage in pipelines. The technique involves detection of rarefaction waves which are produced due to leakage in the pipeline. The theory is, when there is a leakage, negative pressure waves propagate in both directions in the pipeline & this inspection technique senses these acoustic waves thereby detecting the leakage. Here also, having a reliable Oil and Gas industry software solution helps in taking the readings & recording the observation.
- Eddy current testing
Eddy current testing is the final inspection technique which I am going to tell you in this blog. This is used for doing welding inspection in this industry. In welding, it is used to detect surface breaking defects. This method has certain inherent advantages – It doesn’t require any consumables & surface preparation. It offers improved sensitivity & can easily test areas with poor access. Take help of the best survey software for compliance audit while using this technique.
WovVIA
In the context of inspection techniques in the Oil & Gas industry, let me introduce you to WovVIA – This software application is making waves in this industry because of its usability in audit & inspection. This cloud-based, unified software is lightweight & easily scalable & it is the best audit & survey tool of 2021. At first, I will take you through the features of this software –
- Create an audit & inspection form with the click of a button. Define different answer types such as free text, radio buttons & checkboxes.
- It helps you to plan & schedule audit & assign it to concerned employees.
- You can record facts & findings using this application.
- You can do a comparative evaluation of the audit results for two different locations & time periods.
- You can easily identify non-compliance & log tickets.
- Track what actions are being taken to close the ticket.
- An intuitive, do-it-yourself Dashboard with interactive reports keeps you on top of the auditing.
- Embedded analytics helps you to draw insights from the collected data.
How WovVIA helps in inspection & audit
This table summarizes how WovVIA can help in audit & inspection in this industry.
| Processes | Description |
| Audit & Inspection creation | This internal audit management software creates forms & audit questionnaires within minutes. You can easily scan the QR code to access the template. You can choose from hundreds of predefined templates or make your own. |
| Creating Questionnaires | You can create a questionnaire with text inputs, radio buttons, checkboxes, images, list of values, files & attachments, comments & other options. |
| Publish & share audit & inspection checklists | Here you can preview audits, clone a survey & edit it, delete audit & publish audit link, do social sharing, generate QR code, & consolidate audit groups. |
| Audit & inspection checklist validation | You can upload proof & attach files for survey completion, you can sign the survey & use digital signatures. |
| Offline mobility support | You can do audit & inspection anytime & anywhere with or without internet. |
| Ticket management system | It helps you in tracking log deviation, auto ticket generation, assigning tasks to individuals, accepting tickets, tracking tasks’ progress, assigning SLAs & timelines, closing tickets, highlighting ticket status. |
| Dashboard & reporting | Real time reporting, user & profile management, trend analytics, pie charts, line & heat maps, exporting reports to jpeg, pdf & excel, master filtering, summaries & data aggregates, sorting, grouping, conditional formatting, pivot reports. Survey analysis, response time summary, customizing chart types, respondent wise reporting. |
Conclusion
If we have to summarize in one word where audit & inspection in the Oil & Gas industry is heading, it will be ‘automation’. Audit managers have got access to cloud-based internal inspection platform for business which are very easy to onboard & scale, & are affordable. The result is widespread use of cloud-based auditing tools which support mobility & cutting-edge technologies. In this blog, after discussing the six smart inspection techniques, I have introduced you to WovVIA – an advanced audit & inspection software solution from WovVTech. Let us tell you one more thing about this software, it is available FREE-FOREVER, which means you can use it for as long as you want without paying a single penny. So, what are you waiting for? Get onboarded today!
