The managing director of Parsian Gas Refining Company announced that major overhauls have been carried out at Parsian Sites 1 and 2, along with preventive measures to raise the refinery's readiness to supply the country's gas reliably during peak-demand days.

Alamdar Babaei said that, with the cold months approaching, overhaul planning at the complex is based on equipment criticality, preventive programs, failure history and monitoring of technical condition, so the refinery is fully prepared for winter. This year, turnaround work and technical inspections were planned and carried out on dehydration trains 3 and 4 at Parsian Site 2 and on Units 400, 500 and 800 at Parsian Site 1.

He added that the work included assessing equipment condition using risk-based inspection (RBI) calculations and fitness-for-service (FFS) evaluations, overhauling turbines and process compressors, and carrying out preventive maintenance on static, rotating, electrical and instrumentation equipment, so that the refinery can keep supplying gas without interruption.

Preventive strategies to secure output at peak demand

Asked how the refinery avoids sudden shutdowns and ensures maximum production on peak days, Babaei said Parsian's strategy rests on rigorous preventive maintenance, analysis of equipment failure history, prioritization of critical equipment, and full readiness of standby units.

He said measures taken toward this end include performance testing of instrument-air compressors, fire pumps and water transfer pumps; management dashboards for continuous monitoring of operating status; connecting the instrument-air network to the instrument-air line at the booster compressor station to make air supply more reliable; and making optimal use of the existing 36-inch line as a nitrogen reserve. Round-the-clock coordination among the operations, maintenance, safety and firefighting teams allows rapid response to any unforeseen situation.

Risk management and smart equipment monitoring

Stressing the role of continuous monitoring and risk management in cutting equipment downtime and raising availability in critical conditions, he said ongoing monitoring of operating conditions and systematic risk management allow early signs of failure to be caught before production lines are forced to stop.

Babaei added that for static equipment, advanced inspection methods such as thickness measurement and pipeline flaw detection using phased-array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) are applied alongside equipment risk analysis, so that technical decisions on repair versus continued service are made with full confidence.

He said that linking inspection data and condition-monitoring results for rotating equipment to maintenance planning directs resources and spare parts to critical areas, and prevents prolonged equipment downtime and unplanned removal from the production cycle.

Safety: the red line of refinery operations

Speaking on health, safety and environment (HSE) standards during intensive repair operations, he said compliance with HSE standards is the red line during turnarounds. Safety is ensured through strict enforcement of the work-permit system, activity risk assessments, careful isolation of equipment and lines, and management of simultaneous operations.

He said HSE specialists maintain a constant field presence, monitoring confined-space entries and work at height. Under the pre-incident preparedness and emergency response frameworks, they act to halt or immediately correct work if any unsafe condition is observed. Finally, a full pre-startup safety review (PSSR) is carried out before units are restarted.

Babaei noted that reliance on in-house specialists and reverse-engineering projects at Parsian has sped up fault repair and cut spare-parts costs. He said drawing on the expertise of the refinery's own staff and domestic manufacturers has had a tangible effect on reducing equipment downtime and controlling costs.

Localization, reverse engineering: the key to reducing foreign dependence

He added that building, redesigning and reverse-engineering critical items, including compressor components, turbine air-intake filters, electronic cards, instrumentation and temperature sensors, has sharply reduced procurement lead times.

The managing director said domestic specialists' mastery of turbo-compressor repair and overhaul know-how has minimized reliance on foreign sources and accelerated the return of equipment to the process cycle. Parsian Gas Refinery, working with knowledge-based companies, has taken major steps in localizing equipment.