PETRONAS TECHNICAL STANDARDS

Emergency Depressurizing And Sectionalizing

PTS 16.53.02
October 2017

Internal
© 2017 PETROLIAM NASIONAL BERHAD (PETRONAS)
All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form
or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the permission of the copyright
owner. PETRONAS Technical Standards are Company’s internal standards and meant for authorized users only.
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FOREWORD

PETRONAS Technical Standards (PTS) has been developed based on the accumulated knowledge,
experience and best practices of the PETRONAS group supplementing National and International
standards where appropriate. The key objective of PTS is to ensure standard technical practice across
the PETRONAS group.

Compliance to PTS is compulsory for PETRONAS-operated facilities and Joint Ventures (JVs) where
PETRONAS has more than fifty percent (50%) shareholding and/or operational control, and includes
all phases of work activities.

Contractors/manufacturers/suppliers who use PTS are solely responsible in ensuring the quality of
work, goods and services meet the required design and engineering standards. In the case where
specific requirements are not covered in the PTS, it is the responsibility of the
Contractors/manufacturers/suppliers to propose other proven or internationally established
standards or practices of the same level of quality and integrity as reflected in the PTS.

In issuing and making the PTS available, PETRONAS is not making any warranty on the accuracy or
completeness of the information contained in PTS. The Contractors/manufacturers/suppliers shall
ensure accuracy and completeness of the PTS used for the intended design and engineering
requirement and shall inform the Owner for any conflicting requirement with other international
codes and technical standards before start of any work.

PETRONAS is the sole copyright holder of PTS. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, recording or
otherwise) or be disclosed by users to any company or person whomsoever, without the prior written
consent of PETRONAS.

The PTS shall be used exclusively for the authorised purpose. The users shall arrange for PTS to be
kept in safe custody and shall ensure its secrecy is maintained and provide satisfactory information to
PETRONAS that this requirement is met.

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Table of Contents
1.0 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 4
1.1 SCOPE .............................................................................................................................. 4
1.2 GLOSSARY OF TERM ........................................................................................................ 4
1.3 SUMMARY OF CHANGES ................................................................................................. 5
2.0 PURPOSE OF EMERGENCY DEPRESSURIZING SYSTEM ............................................. 6
3.0 DESIGN REQUIREMENT FOR EMERGENCY DEPRESSURIZING ................................... 7
3.1 DESIGN CRITERIA............................................................................................................. 7
4.0 APPLICATIONS OF EMERGENCY DEPRESSURIZING .................................................. 8
5.0 EMERGENCY DEPRESSURIZING VALVES ................................................................ 11
6.0 ACTIVATION OF DEPRESSURIZING VALVES ........................................................... 13
7.0 AVAILABILITY REQUIREMENTS ............................................................................. 15
8.0 RELIABILITY REQUIREMENTS ................................................................................ 16
9.0 DEPRESSURIZING EFFECT – BRITTLE FRACTURE .................................................... 17
10.0 SECTIONALIZING OF PROCESS SYSTEMS ............................................................... 18
11.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 22

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

This PETRONAS Technical Standards (PTS) provides the minimum technical specifications for
the design of emergency depressurizing system and sectionalizing. This PTS is a supplement
to API Std. 521. This PTS also includes PETRONAS lesson learnt and best practices.

Depressurizing equipment containing large inventories of high pressure gas and/or liquid in
the event of a fire or a serious operating excursion or utility failure is intended to minimise
the potential creation and escalation of a major hazard.

1.1 SCOPE

This PTS covers the design and review of safety system during emergency events for upstream
and downstream facilities. The development of safety design philosophy of facilities in
projects would include considerations of emergency depressurizing system and sectionalizing
as safeguarding measures in emergency shutdown events.

1.2 GLOSSARY OF TERM

1.2.1 General Definition of Terms & Abbreviations

Refer to PTS 00.01.03 for PTS Requirements, General Definition of Terms, Abbreviations &
Reading Guide.

1.2.2 Specific Definition of Terms

No Term Definition

1 Blowdown Liquid draining or gas venting from an inventory

and depressurization of a plant or part of a
plant, and equipment usually via blowdown
valves

2 Depressurizing Reducing pressure in process equipment at a

controlled rate either due to emergency
conditions or for operational purposes

3 Sectionalizing Dividing process units or a system into sections

via isolation valves to optimize depressurizing
volume in order to minimize risk

4 Vapour Depressurizing System Protective arrangement of valves and piping

intended to provide rapid reduction of pressure
in equipment by releasing vapours and is
achieved through vapor depressurizing valves.
Table 1.1 : Specific Definition of Terms

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1.2.3 Specific Abbreviations

No Abbreviation Description

1 ALARP As Low As Reasonably Practicable

2 BLEVE Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion

3 SIPROD Simultaneous Production and Drilling

Table 1.2 : Specific Abbreviations

1.3 SUMMARY OF CHANGES

This PTS 16.53.02 (October 2017 replaces PTS 16.53.02 (October 2014).

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2.0 PURPOSE OF EMERGENCY DEPRESSURIZING SYSTEM

The emergency depressurizing systems are required for upstream and downstream facilities
to achieve the following objectives:

i. To reduce the risk of events due to fire exposure:

a) Catastrophic equipment failure
b) BLEVE

ii. To reduce the risk of equipment failure during an internal runaway reaction.

iii. To reduce the amount of material released and leakage rate if there is a loss of
containment.
iv. To bring the facility quickly into a safe state in the event of other emergency
such as loss of power or instrument air.

Pressure relieving devices (PRDs) such as relief valves and rupture discs shall not be used in
lieu of depressurization valves.

Thus, emergency depressurizing systems are considered a major safety system for the
following reasons.
i. When equipment is exposed to fire, especially at non-wetted internal surfaces,
the heat input quickly reduces the strength of the materials whereby emergency
depressurizing acts to lower the stresses to a point where rupture can be avoided.

ii. For internal runaway exothermic reactions in process units, the loss of
containment is expected when the temperature exceeds the design temperature.
Emergency depressurizing acts to minimize the released amount from the process
units.

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3.0 DESIGN REQUIREMENT FOR EMERGENCY DEPRESSURIZING

3.1 DESIGN CRITERIA

The emergency depressurizing design criteria are as follows.

i. High rate depressurizing – Depressurize equipment to 50% of design pressure or

6.9 barg as per below guidelines.
a) Depressurize the equipment to 50% of design pressure within 15 minutes
for vessels with thickness of 25.4 mm and higher.
b) For vessels with thinner walls and/or for scenarios with higher severity
than pool fire depressurizing shall be done to 6.9 barg or 50% of design
pressure, whichever is lower, within 15 minutes.

ii. Low rate depressurizing – Depressurize equipment to 50% of design pressure

within 30 minutes

iii. Licensor / Proprietary Vendor depressurizing rate – Specific requirement by

Licensor or proprietary Vendor to be justified through further safety analysis

The selection of the type of depressurizing system is dependent on the risk of a potential
event and the mitigation of hazards during an emergency shutdown. These shall be
evaluated for each facility based on automatic or manually initiation and shall be
documented as part of the safety design philosophy.

High rate and low rate emergency depressurizing for facility or plant is applied based on the
potential to reduce the risk of catastrophic equipment failure, the size and duration of a
toxic gas release and the likelihood of ignition. Evaluation shall be supported with analysis
to demonstrate that the risks are mitigated to ALARP as follows.

i. Demonstrating sufficient mechanical design and strength of equipment /piping

ii. Safety analysis through FERA , QRA etc.

iii. IPF verification of emergency depressurizing safety system

iv. Firefighting and escape routing

v. Implementation of administrative procedures and/ or operator intervention, if

any.

vi. Past project reference of similar application within PETRONAS and/or industry.

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4.0 APPLICATIONS OF EMERGENCY DEPRESSURIZING

4.1.1 High rate depressurizing shall (PSR) be applied for events that lead to severe consequences in a
relatively short time.

4.1.2 Establishing the depressurizing rate shall take consideration the following:

i. It can be increased to be within flare system design capacity

ii. The use of fire proofing of vessels and piping can reduce the rate of temperature
rise of the fire exposed equipment

iii. The impact on the integrity of vessels internals and catalyst / bed etc.

4.1.3 High rate depressurizing shall (PSR) be applied to the following:

i. Process equipment containing at least 4 m3 of liquid butane or a more volatile

liquid under normal operating condition.

ii. High pressure process units operating above 17 barg that process very toxic
and/or flammable liquids and gases such as platformers, hydrotreaters and
hydrocrackers, residue hydroconversion units.

iii. Processes in which an exothermic reaction can lead to loss of primary

containment in a relatively short timeframe such as hydrocracking units.

iv. For manned offshore facilities. For unmanned offshore facilities emergency
depressurizing shall be evaluated on a case to case basis

4.1.4 The depressurizing is controlled to:

i. Avoid a drop in temperature below the minimum design temperature of the wall

ii. Prevent hydrate formation downstream of the depressurizing valve

iii. Maintain within the capacity of the flare radiation, acoustics and liquid handling
capacity

iv. The optimization of depressurizing rate shall be supported by a transient

analysis and using dynamic simulation package

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4.1.5 High-rate depressurizing would require automatic or remotely operated emergency

depressurizing valves to be installed.

4.1.6 Depressurizing equipment to 0 barg should be followed by inerting (purging equipment with
inert gas).

4.1.7 Depressurizing valves shall be located as near as possible to the hydrocarbon inventory to be
depressurized. When selecting a location, the following factors shall be considered:

i. The anticipated response of control valves in the system

ii. The possible impact on vessel temperatures (e.g. due to the depressurizing of a
‘cold’ section of plant through a ‘warm’ one). Generally, the cold section must
be segregated from the warm section

iii. Damage to trays, solids contained in vessels (e.g. molecular sieves) and other
vessel internals due to potential reverse flow etc.
v. Pressure vessel only filled with gas

4.1.8 Pipeline

Pipeline depressurizing may be required during an emergency either to overcome

operational requirements (such as hydrate removal) or for maintenance.

For offshore pipeline system, the depressurizing rate shall be back-calculated from the
existing flare system capacity to reduce the pressure in pipeline as rapidly as practicable.

4.1.9 Platforms

SIRPROD platforms which have unit shutdowns (USDs) and process shutdowns (PSDs)
leading to emergency shutdown (ESD) shall be subjected to emergency depressurizing as per
PTS 16.01.01.

4.1.10 Multi-pipe slugcatcher

Relief load calculations and detailed risk assessment analysis (e.g. QRA, FERA) shall be
performed to confirm that various risk reducing measures which includes increasing the wall
thickness of the small diameter components to bring the period of fire resistance to be equal
to the rest of the slugcatcher. The multi pipe slugcatcher could also be buried or fireproofed
to achieve the lowest risk level i.e. ALARP.

The depressurizing rate shall be allowed to be within the flaring capability of the facility.

If the vessel or a component/section is fireproofed then the depressurization rate need not
be high. A slower depressurization rate can be provided to further optimize on the flaring
capacity without compromising on the equipment integrity.

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4.1.11 Process units and pipe sections that have the potential of developing flammable (i.e. fluids
which the operating pressure and temperature are above flash point) or toxic cloud if there is
a leak or have the potential to rupture in case of fire shall (PSR) apply emergency depressurizing.
In such cases, high rate depressurizing is a highly effective means to reduce the risks of the
consequences or likelihood of escalation of the hazardous event. e.g. ethylene benzene
reaction sections with combinations of large quantities of benzene, ethylene at high pressure
and temperature , methanol and ethanol units and generally C5 and C6 containing units at
high pressure and temperature.

4.1.12 For LPG bulk storage facilities, the construction features shall include mitigations for liquid
pool fire such as no flanges below liquid level, design with a sloping floor, BLEVE prevention
via fire protection etc. If the depressurizing system is not employed, the risks shall be studied
and quantified to show the risks are ALARP.

4.1.13 Case by case evaluation shall be performed for fire exposure to pressure vessels that contain
only gas/vapour operated at high pressure. When exposed to fire, the gas-filled vessels will
lose their strength quickly as heat transfer from the vessel wall to the gas inside will be low. It
is expected that these vessels may fail due to overtemperature even before reaching the relief
valve set pressure. In these cases depressuring is one means to reduce the risk of vessel
failure.

4.1.14 Depressurization of dense phase carbon dioxide requires to consider hazards associated to
dry ice formation, flare snuffing and unusual dispersion behaviour.

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5.0 EMERGENCY DEPRESSURIZING VALVES

5.1.1 Emergency depressurizing valves shall be located considering the following:

i. It shall comply with the same considerations as relief valves as per PTS 16.52.04.

ii. Located as near as possible to the hydrocarbon inventory to be depressurized

iii. It should allow easy access for maintenance due to requirements of periodic
testing

iv. Location selected shall allow equipment to be to be depressurized without

obstruction by backflow preventing systems or check valves during
depressurizing

v. Location selected shall avoid large flows (and reverse flows) through vessel
internals (e.g. packed/catalyst beds and other internals) and compressors during
depressurisation

vi. The possible impact on vessel temperature

vii. The anticipated response of control valves in the system during the activation of
emergency depressurizing valves

5.1.2 Hardware, testing requirements and instrumentation of depressurizing systems and

implementation shall be in accordance to PTS 14.12.09 and PTS 14.10.01.

5.1.3 Sizing for depressurizing valve

The sizing for high rate depressurizing valve shall be in accordance with API Std. 521 for
conditions of fire exposure, density change and liquid flashing and is assumed that fire is in
progress throughout the depressurizing period when calculating the vapour load generated.

Sizing calculations shall consider the following.

i. Vaporisation of the liquid due to pressure reduction

ii. Vapour density change in the equipment due to pressure reduction and
temperature change

iii. Vaporisation caused from heat input of the external fire

iv. All input and output streams to and from the system are stopped and all internal
heat sources within the process shall cease in the event of fire

v. Heat evolved from the reactions and gases generated by the reactions shall be
taken into account where reactions have the potential to occur as a result of fire
exposure.

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vi. Liquid inventory shall include all equipment located in the defined fire zone plus
all equipment outside the defined fire zone that will remain open and can flow
into the equipment inside fire zone in a fire event.

vii. The liquid wetted surface area in the equipment that is exposed to the fire is used
to calculate the vapour generation with the following assumptions :
a) Vessel and piping wetted areas
b) Normal liquid level and any liquid influx from adjoining equipment or
internals e.g. column tray liquid inventory
c) Inventory of shell and tube heat exchangers to be taken as two thirds of
the total shell volume
d) The moderating effect of fire resistant insulation or fire proofing can be
included.

In summary, vapour volume of the system are determined per the Table 5.1

System Liquid/Vapour Factors

To include:
Liquid inventory  All equipment located within the fire area,
 All equipment outside the fire area which
remain open to the equipment in fire area

Vapour volume of the system Vapor generated from vaporization of liquid

in equipment exposed to fire be based on
the wetted areas of the vessel and piping as
defined in PTS 16.53.01.

At normal liquid levels.

Table 5.1: Factors for determining depressurized vapour volume

vi. The initial pressure for calculating the required flowrate for the depressurizing
system shall be as the following:

a) The relief valve set pressure, or

b) The maximum normal operating pressure, for automated high rate
emergency depressurizing

vii. The effect of the following shall be excluded from the calculations:

a) The effect of liquid entrainment or carry-over on the depressurizing rate

or depressurizing time, unless specified.
b) The application of active fire protection system (such as deluge water)
shall not be credited in the depressurizing calculations due to its
operation to reduce heat input to equipment when in demand cannot be
guaranteed.

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6.0 ACTIVATION OF DEPRESSURIZING VALVES

6.1.1 Emergency depressurization system shall allow depressurizing of facilities either automatically
or manually. The design of the depressurisation system is such that it shall remain operational
when emergency shutdown is initiated for the duration of the emergency and should fail in a
full open position. The time required to identify and effectively mitigate the event shall be
established.

6.1.2 The feed streams and all other pressure sources such as heating system to the related section
shall be stopped either by control valves or emergency shutdown valves when emergency
depressurizing valve is opened. Isolation of feed streams can be manually or automatically
activated by an emergency depressurizing valve trip system.

6.1.3 The time for effectively mitigating hazardous event are based on the following:

i. The ability to detect the problem (gas/fire detectors, operator observation,

operator rounds, etc.) is poor

ii. Difficulty in the ability to diagnose the problem

iii. The effectiveness of the response

iv. Huge inventory loss

v. Large relief loads

The selection of automatic or manual emergency depressurization should be based on the

following.

i. Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA)

ii. Bowties and Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA)

iii. Detailed Studies e.g. Reactive Hazard Assessment

6.1.4 Automatic emergency depressurizing systems shall be selected if a fast response to identify
and effectively mitigate the event is required such as in the case where it would rapidly
develop into a runaway reaction or location where there is no gas or fire detection and is thus
dependent on the automated system as the mitigation measure.

6.1.5 Automatic emergency depressurizing systems shall be equipped with manual trip function
with a reset feature which allows the operator to close the valve after the trip conditions have
cleared. Trip bypasses shall be provided only for maintenance purposes with the keys to those
trip bypasses under controlled procedure.

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6.1.6 Manually activated system shall be capable of being actuated by an operator from a remote
location locally or from the control room. The field operator shall have radio contact with the
control room.

6.1.7 Emergency depressurizing systems (automatic or manual activation) may be interlocked with
equipment shutdowns and/or sectionalisation facilities. In some facilities, the automated
sequenced emergency depressurizing features one sectionalized portion of the facility is
depressurized first followed by depressurizing of other sectionalized sections.

6.1.8 For offshore installations, emergency depressurizing valves shall be automatically activated
unless the facilities design philosophy excludes rapid emergency depressurizing in the
emergency response management.

6.1.9 For refinery hydrotreaters and hydrocrackers, most high rate emergency depressurizing valves
are manually activated and most low rate operational depressurizing valves are automated.

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7.0 AVAILABILITY REQUIREMENTS

The availability e.g. Safety Integrated Level or SIL required for the emergency depressurizing
system (including sectionalizing) shall be determined and demonstrated by one of the
following:

i. Performing IPF analysis if the emergency depressurizing system is part of IPF

with compliance to requirements for SIL rated valves per PTS 14.12.09. Some
emergency depressurizing valves are rated with SIL-1 while others may not
classify the emergency depressurizing valves such as manual initiated
emergency depressurizing valves but can still be considered as an effective
barrier.

ii. Performing quantitative analysis. The analysis shall include the availability of the
systems that will isolate the feed supply.

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8.0 RELIABILITY REQUIREMENTS

8.1.1 The design of the emergency depressurizing system for a process unit with multiple
emergency depressurizing valves shall minimise spurious trips should ensure the following

i. A common mode failure (such as loss of instrument air, electrical power failure
or failure of ESD logic solver instrumentation) cannot cause more than one
depressurizing valve to open simultaneously. Otherwise the flare/vent system
shall be sized accordingly to cater for the expected higher release of gas.

ii. Separate power supply systems and secured air supply systems should be
specified for each depressurizing system to prevent common mode opening of
emergency depressurizing valves.

iii. Each depressurizing valve is provided with a dedicated air reservoir to avoid any
spurious valve opening on loss of air supply.

8.1.2 The design for sequenced depressurizing shall ensure that a system failure should not result
in:

i. An uncontrolled simultaneous depressurisation of the total facility;

ii. A situation where automatic depressurisation is prevented.

8.1.3 Motorization will be performed by pneumatic actuator. The valve fail position on pneumatic
failure shall be exclusively open. Depressurizing valves shall be Tight Shut Off (TSO) and are
electrically energised to open.

8.1.4 The reliability of the system shall include analysis of the upstream and downstream
equipment during and after emergency depressurizing whereby upstream equipment and
downstream equipment shall be designed to cope with peak depressurizing (such as high
velocities) and with the final end-process conditions such as the very low process
temperatures that might be generated when depressurized.
Refer to PTS 14.12.09 for the instrumentation design requirements for depressurizing
systems.

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9.0 DEPRESSURIZING EFFECT – BRITTLE FRACTURE

9.1.1 Vessels containing volatile liquids with vapour blowdown piping shall (PSR) be designed to
withstand the low temperatures resulting from auto refrigeration during emergency
depressurizing and with appropriate material selection and mitigations to avoid brittle
fracture.

9.1.2 Materials shall be selected by taking into account how the systems are sectionalized and
depressurized. The temperature of process fluids shall be calculated as a function of pressure
for each depressurizing application and compared to the vessel and piping’s Minimum Safe
Operating Temperature. This is to determine if any restrictions shall be placed on the
depressurizing or a change in the material selection is required.

9.1.3 The equipment materials of construction shall be selected accordingly. The specified lower
design temperature for the piping and equipment shall consider the low temperatures which
can be resulted by equipment and piping both upstream and downstream of a depressurizing
device. Material selection shall comply with PTS 15.10.01.

9.1.4 Rapidly restarting the depressurized equipment (after emergency depressurizing) without
letting the equipment warm up first or the use of other process/utility streams to accelerate
the start-up shall (PSR) be avoided as it may lead to higher stresses than the material can safely
withstand at the cold temperatures.

9.1.5 Detailed analysis shall be used to accurately determine the lowest temperature profile at
slugcatchers and pig-traps during depressurisation. This will be used to justify if different
materials of construction for the slug catcher or pig trap are required compared to the
attaching pipelines.

9.1.6 Independent IPFs and/or operational instructions/procedures/alarms shall be put in place to

assure that the existing equipment and its related systems which could become brittle are not
exposed to process conditions that can lead to loss of containment.

Refer to PTS 14.12.09 for details on hardware design.

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10.0 SECTIONALIZING OF PROCESS SYSTEMS

10.1.1 The sectionalizing of process systems is specified to achieve at least one of the following
objectives:

i. To limit the inventory of equipment within the system for effective process
system depressurizing

ii. To reduce potential escalation of release by limiting the total quantity released
in the event of loss of containment

iii. To reduce the required capacity of emergency depressurizing systems for large
process systems

10.1.2 The rationales of sectionalizing the process systems are:

i. The inventory from related equipment and piping open to the depressurized
equipment or unit increases during depressurizing which will increase the total
volume and time to depressurize the vessel and system. By sectionalizing into
smaller sections, the peak depressurizing capacity can be smaller which gives a
potential benefit for large inventory processes.

ii. The control of release sizes through sectionalizing with the intent to avoid
overloading of flare systems is preferred in upstream facilities to avoid reliance
on operator decision-making under stress or complex logic timer based on
depressurizing sequencing.

iii. In cases where multiple high-rate emergency depressurizing systems and/or

multiple low-rate operational depressurizing systems are installed, simultaneous
opening of these valves might exceed the acceptable flare capacity.

iv. The application of sectionalization should be demonstrated to lead to lowest-risk

solution for safety of facilities (i.e. ALARP) using the appropriate risk assessment
tools e.g. QRA. If the isolatable volume is small then its failure may be of less
severity.

10.1.3 Considerations for sectionalizing

The following shall apply in establishing the sectionalizing envelope:

Aspect Requirement

Selection of i. shall be identified by applying the criteria stated in

equipment/system Emergency Depressurizing

Defining the size/volume of i. shall exclude vessels/systems which can be isolated

the system to be with remote actuated valves (which should stop
depressurized feed and heat input from heat exchangers and/or
fired heaters)

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Aspect Requirement
ii. shall include all equipment that is normally lined up
to the vessel or system to be depressurised [i]

Defining the size/volume of i. Sectionalizing shall not be done if upon sectionalizing,

the system to be
depressurized for large
system and with large plot
area
sequenced depressurizing is required to mitigate a
potential emergency due to limitation of flare system
capacity
ii. Sectionalizing shall enable all sections that are
simultaneously affected by the same emergency (such
as fire) to depressurize simultaneously [ii]

Assess impact to flare system i. The applicable depressurizing criteria which can be
capacity met without exceeding the flare capacity shall be
verified
ii. The effect of opening multiple emergency
depressurizing valves within one sectionalized system
shall be evaluated
iii. The effect of opening emergency depressurizing
valves in more than one sectionalized system shall be
evaluated. [iii]
Table 10.1: Requirements for sectionalizing envelope
NOTE(S):
i. Remote actuated valves (such as fail close control valves, emergency shutdown valves, emergency
isolation valves, check valves (in the case of backflow). Examples:
a) A distillation column - reboiler, condenser, accumulator and reflux pump arrangements.
b) A refrigeration loop – accumulator vessel with open path with the compressor, piping and
associated equipment.
c) Pipelines - Import and export services.
ii.
a) It is effective to breakdown the system into smaller systems for flare load management.
b) The extent of sectionalizing shall consider the flare system capacity
iii.
a) Assumption that sectionalizing actions is successful
b) Emergency depressurizing is not normally a governing factor in the flare capacity.
c) The effect of opening more emergency depressurizing valves than premised in the design intent is
to cover unexpected emergencies or operator response
iv.
a) Sectionalizing introduces additional valves, hence potential for additional leak points, weight, cost
and maintenance.
b) Sectionalizing also introduces potential for inventories to be trapped and isolated from drain,
relief or depressurizing connections.

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The operation of sectionalizing shall be designed with the following features:

Aspect Requirement

Valves i. All valves that are part of the sectionalizing shall be

designed to operate from a remote location [i]

Instrumentation i. The activation of sectionalisation shall be simple and

flexible, and operator initiated activities.
ii. The actions for emergency depressurizing and
sectionalization shall be part of operator training. [ii]

Interlocking i. Risk assessment shall be applied in the event that

process design requires interlocking of the
emergency depressurizing and sectionalizing
actions
ii. The design of automated sectionalisation actions
shall include the ability to change individual valve
positions. [iii]
Table 10.2: Criteria for sectionalizing operation
NOTE(S):
i.
a) Remote location – normally from the control room. Local operation under emergency conditions
may not be possible
ii.
a) Typically, the emergency depressurizing is not instrumented to activate sectionalization or vice
versa.
b) The use of basic process control interfaces (such as controls to shutdown feed, pumps, and
process heat input) form the action of sectionalisation.
c) Interlocks between such control interfaces may be applied so that sectionalization actions can be
initiated with one button.
iii.
a) In situations where emergency depressurizing can cause damage to mechanical equipment if
remain running, interlocking the equipment shutdown with the emergency depressurizing should
be considered.
b) Automated sectionalization actions - interlocking with emergency depressurizing, interlocking
sectionalization actions into one button

The design requirement of valves for sectionalization shall be based on the following:

i. Preference shall be made to use the existing means of isolation for sectionalizing
wherever possible.

ii. Valves used for sectionalizing shall be classified as an IPF and shall comply with
the SIL design requirements

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iii. Sectionalizing valves shall not be provided with bypass unless the bypass contains
automatic shutdown valve. Critical valves (such as final riser isolation valves
between pipelines and facilities) shall not be provided with bypasses

iv. Sectionalizing valves that are for the purpose of mitigating fire escalation and are
within fire zone shall be fire safe except for valves servicing a non-hydrocarbon
system. The design requirements of these sectionalizing valves shall comply with
PTS 14.10.01 and PTS 16.73.01, considering emergency shutdown valves (ESDV)
and/or process shutdown valves (PSDV)

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11.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY

In this PTS, reference is made to the following Standards/Publications. Unless specifically

designated by date, the latest edition of each publication shall be used, together with any
supplements/revisions thereto:

PETRONAS TECHNICAL STANDARDS

Index to PTS PTS 00.01.01
PTS Requirements, General Definition of Terms, Abbreviations & PTS 00.01.03
Reading Guide
Shutdown and Blowdown Valves Selection, Sizing, and Specifications PTS 14.10.01
Instrumentation for Depressurizing Systems PTS 14.12.09
Brittle Fracture of Metallic Materials PTS 15.10.01
Offshore Facilities Design For Simultaneous Production & Drilling PTS 16.01.01
(SIPROD)
Design of Pressure Relief, Flare and Vent Systems PTS 16.52.04
Overpressure and Underpressure – Prevention and Protection PTS 16.53.01
Fire Safety for Onshore Facilities PTS 16.73.01

INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
Pressure-relieving and depressurizing systems API Std. 521

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