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MARKETING & SUPPLY SUBMITTED BYTAkREER ADNOC's Takreer takes the low-impedance path to complete tank safety with Consilium and Lightning Eliminators lIghTNINg PROTEcTION F Or tanK stOrage Firms, the risK OF a lightning-induced fire event is too potentially damaging to bear. Floating tank storage facilities that have millions of dollars' worth of product can be destroyed with a single spark. Even worse is the downtime such an event will cause: a possibly lengthy period of investigation and reconstruction that impacts a storage facility's ability to deliver product to market and generate revenue. Last year, Takreer, a storage and refinery subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), completed a thorough lightning protection analysis and began transforming its protection profile for floating roof tank storage. Dozens of tanks, while operating efficiently, had potentially faulty lightning protection systems in place: metal shunt and wire systems that are meant to direct charge in the case of a lightning event but are prone to fall into disrepair over time. "Because Takreer is a very safety-conscious company, they called us and Lightning Eliminators & 22 March 2013 Consultants, Inc. (LEC) for a better lightning protection solution," said Manoj Nambiar, general manager of Consilium Middle East Fire Protection and Safety operations. "As a company that handles high volumes of storage, Takreer has to be very progressive about making sure their facilities are protected." Consilium Middle East (FZC), which sells and installs fire protection solutions to many of the major oil and natural gas companies throughout the region, started offering LEC's Retractable Grounding Assembly (RGA™) lightning protection solution to companies that want the best levels of lightning protection available. Last year, Consilium and LEC services outfitted 84 tanks at Takreer's Ruwais refinery with 450 RGA assemblies. And, the company is starting on a new contract to install RGAs on another 8 Takreer storage tanks in Abu Dhabi. While those installations are retrofits to existing tanks that have less-effective lightning protection systems, Takreer has also begun including RGAs in its specifications for new tank construction as well. Takreer and other oil storage and refinery companies worldwide choose the RGA because floating roof tanks are notoriously difficult to protect from lightning. Other floating roof tank grounding solutions often fail because they require a great deal of maintenance and upkeep: Metal shunts used for grounding on floating roof tanks regularly break, and wires used for the same purpose often tangle, compromising the low-impedance path they are supposed to create for safe operation. The patented, award-winning RGA replaces the frequently damaged metal shunts and wires. While RGAs require routine maintenance and inspection like any other piece of hardware, they are not easily compromised and require a fraction of the repair and replacement work seen with other systems. Takreer's stance with enhanced lightning protection using RGA solutions is especially progressive as the company operates in a part of the world that is not known for excessive lightning. While NPN Magazine n www.npnweb.com