Jetty Maintenance and Inspection Guide

Reliable equipment at the jetty is vital for safe transfer of cargo between the ship and shore.

Maintenance of this equipment is particularly important because of the harsh environmental conditions often experienced.

This guide provides information on the basic function, failure, inspection, maintenance and repair of all the key equipment items and systems. It is not intended to provide guidance on safety management procedures or to replace the manufacturers’ instruction manuals. However, it is designed to provide a description of a typical jetty and the likely faults that may occur if maintenance work is not carried out regularly.

Records show that the greatest risk of cargo escape is concentrated at the ship/shore manifold area. Therefore, equipment at the jetty head is of vital importance to the safe transfer of cargo between ship and shore. Because of the environmental conditions to which it is exposed, maintenance of equipment on the jetty is very important, particularly with regard to lubrication and corrosion protection.

Maintenance is often made more difficult by access considerations and the need to interface with shipping operations. For these reasons, the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators (SIGTTO) and the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) commissioned the writing of these guidelines.

This document provides guidance on the effective maintenance of critical items of equipment for both oil and liquefied gas terminal jetties. It also provides advice on possible failure modes for each item of equipment and discusses both proactive and reactive maintenance philosophies.

This document is not intended to provide guidance on safety management procedures, which should be covered by the operating company’s safety management system, referencing national statutory regulations, ISGOTT, International Safety Guide for Oil Tankers and Terminals (OCIMF/ICS/IAPH), Liquefied Gas Handling Principles (SIGTTO) and other appropriate industry publications.

Many items of equipment are computer controlled, but it is not within the scope of this publication to advise on the maintenance of software and hardware systems. Neither does the document cover floating facilities, such as Single Point Moorings (SPMs) and Conventional Buoy Moorings (CBMs), or offshore structures located in water deeper than about 25 m.

The retention of records for both the detail and frequency of maintenance work is a legal requirement in many countries. As a minimum, such records should comprise the results of inspections, measurements and tests that were performed, details of the specific requirement, replenishment or remedial work carried out and the dates on which the work was done. Information should also be retained for possible inspection by third party inspectors.

The recording of this data is necessary to monitor rates of deterioration, failure rates, the general adequacy of the remedial work performed, etc. It also serves as evidence in support of any decision to perform the work at a greater or lesser frequency at a particular site.

It must be stressed that these guidelines are not designed to replace manufacturers’ instruction manuals or challenge statutory regulations, but are intended to provide a description of the maintenance requirements of a typical jetty and the possible modes of failure if these items are not properly maintained.

1 General Maintenance Principles

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Inspection and Maintenance Principles

1.3 Summary

2 Topsides

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Transfer Systems

2.3 Mooring and Berthing

2.4 Safety and Environment

2.5 Common Systems/Utilities

2.6 Corrosion Protection

3 Substructure

3.1 General

3.2 Piling

3.3 Concrete

3.4 Steel