Jangchung Gymnasium-sized Crude Oil Storage Tank Inspected by Drone

[Asia Economy Reporter So-yeon Park] The era has begun where drones, not humans, inspect crude oil storage tanks as tall as 86 meters, large enough to fit the entire Jangchung Gymnasium. Due to the sensitive nature of oil storage tanks, which react to even minor shocks, drones had not been introduced until now. SK Energy’s Ulsan CLX has solved this problem.

On the 13th, SK Energy announced that it has introduced drone inspection technology for crude oil storage tanks at its core production site, Ulsan Complex (hereafter Ulsan CLX). This is a result of the Smart Plant project, one of the three key strategies of SK Energy’s recently revealed digital transformation.

The company explained that this is a very meaningful case where on-site members voluntarily came up with ideas and sought solutions in response to SK Innovation CEO Kim Jun’s emphasis that “only extraordinary methods can overcome crises in extraordinary times” to overcome management difficulties.

There are 34 crude oil storage tanks at SK Energy’s Ulsan CLX, which serve to store imported crude oil before it is fed as raw material to the refinery. With a total storage capacity of 20 million barrels, it can store more than eight times South Korea’s crude oil consumption of about 2.4 million barrels.

Due to the nature of crude oil, vapor is generated, making periodic inspections essential for safety. With changes in related regulations, starting this year, in addition to the regular inspection every 11 years, a separate intermediate inspection system has been introduced, resulting in inspections every 5 to 6 years.

This means the number of tanks subject to inspection has increased and the inspection cycle has shortened. Until now, 3 to 4 of the 34 crude oil storage tanks were inspected annually, but this will now increase to 6 to 8 tanks.

A crude oil storage tank with a capacity of 750,000 barrels has a diameter of 86 meters and a height of 22 meters, large enough to fit the Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul by volume. Until now, such enormous crude oil storage tanks had to be inspected visually by humans, requiring the construction of temporary scaffolding. This was risky and made visual inspection difficult, but there was no alternative.

Ulsan CLX began fundamentally reconsidering the use of temporary scaffolding, which requires significant time and cost and poses safety risks, for crude oil storage tank inspections. After the government’s policy announcement last year, they have been thoroughly preparing for over a year to improve the inspection method.

However, the most important challenge to using drones was preventing explosions caused by drone crashes. Crude oil storage tanks generate vapor, making them structurally very sensitive to even minor impacts. This safety-first policy was the reason drones, despite their well-known advantages, had not been introduced until now.

The SK Ulsan CLX inspection unit implemented multiple layers of safety equipment and systems, including equipping drones with parachutes, completing battery shock tests at certified institutions, installing dual protectors to prevent secondary battery explosions, operating drones in two-person teams to resolve operational errors, and discovering local companies in Ulsan with expertise and technical skills.

To solve issues related to crashes, organizations within SK Ulsan CLX involved in device technology, equipment, inspection analysis, and crude oil operations participated horizontally and vertically in problem-solving. SK Innovation’s company-wide ‘work method innovation’ and ‘Agile organization’ led the problem-solving efforts.

By introducing drones for regular inspections of crude oil storage tanks at Ulsan CLX, SK Energy simultaneously achieved three benefits: ▲ improved inspection accuracy compared to visual inspections ▲ secured safety by eliminating the need for humans to climb to high places ▲ eliminated the need for temporary scaffolding that used to surround the entire tank, resulting in time and cost savings.

It is expected that inspection costs for 30 tanks scheduled for inspection from this year to 2021 will be drastically reduced from about 900 million KRW to around 50 million KRW. Typically, inspection costs for a 750,000-barrel crude oil storage tank reached up to 100 million KRW per tank, but using drones can reduce this to about 2 to 3 million KRW. The shortened inspection cycle and doubled inspection volume can now be effectively managed, which is a significant achievement.

Choi Hyuk-jin, head of SK Energy’s Inspection Unit 2, who led the drone inspection method, said, “The introduction of drone inspections is an innovation in work methods, where departments related to safety issues, previously considered impossible, moved agilely to fundamentally analyze and solve the problem.” He added, “Going forward, we will expand drone use for inspecting facilities within SK Ulsan CLX, such as offshore pipe facilities, which can cause environmental pollution but have lacked reliable inspection methods.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.