Abolfazl Naemnezhad - Islamic Republic of Iran
Mansor Farzam - Islamic Republic of Iran
Gholamreza Rashed - Islamic Republic of Iran
Ebrahim Khayer - Islamic Republic of Iran

Inspection of 1st stage separator ME-03 of Nowroz production platform at Bahregan oil district (IOOC5) shows Widely scattered local thin area have been discovered on the internal bottom surface. Severity of corrosion damages caused to local thinning more 55% of original thickness. This 47 years old pressure vessel is one of the most critical equipment of oil production platform. Loss of production and huge economic loss are the important result of untimely shutdown of ME-03. Also high injury potential due to failure of pressure vessel is the other deriving force for retiring this equipment. This paper evaluate the condition of ME-03 for continue to servicing safe by implementation advanced NDT analyzing methods and fitness for service assessment. Result of assessment by CrackWISE software will compare to API579/ASME FFS-1 and remediation action plans also developed to prevent and mitigate future occurrence of local thinning damage mechanisms.

separator pressure vessel, Local Thin Area (LTA), fitness for service (FFS)