Downstream Oil & Gas Consulting

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Case study

How Can Petrochemical Operators Maintain the Integrity of Their Equipment?

Efficient, compliant production

Consumer demands and regulation are driving rapid formulation changes for oil and gas, often requiring more complex and more maintenance-intensive equipment to refine raw materials. This equipment produces a wider variety of end products but also introduces new risks. When equipment fails, the stakes are high, from costly shutdowns to potential injuries or environmental damages.

Get to the root of failures

Exponent has decades of experience working with refineries to both determine the cause of equipment and piping failures and help refine maintenance schedules and procedures. Our multidisciplinary teams of engineers, scientists, and industry experts evaluate refinery equipment and materials failures, assess environmental damage from unintended releases, and perform rigorous worker safety assessments. We provide on-site materials and equipment evaluations and analysis of failed components in our state-of-the-art labs.

Rapid environmental response

Our environmental experts can assess the effects of unintended releases related to refining, working in concert with our human health specialists to determine impacts to nearby communities. We also work with refinery clients to rapidly respond to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Our environmental and ecological regulatory experts can assist with wastewater compliance, help respond to state and federal Clean Water Act requirements, assist with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) pretreatment permitting, and support natural resource damage assessment. Lastly, our environmental team can perform carbon footprint and lifecycle assessments for many oil and gas products.

Capabilities

Refinery equipment failure can cause expensive shutdowns, environmental releases and damage, and harm workers and nearby communities. Exponent's experts work closely with you to assess equipment failures and help prevent them in the future. We can assess pressure systems and piping, process equipment, and associated mechanical components. Our inspections happen on site, or we can perform advanced metallurgical and material testing at our state-of-the art labs around the world.
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When equipment fails, it can release oil and gas products into the environment. Our toxicology experts help you understand how different chemical components move and change in different environments and how those processes impact exposure and potential toxicity to ecological resources like fish, birds, and marine mammals. Our environmental experts can assist with Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) strategies, support environmental remediation and restoration plans, and facilitate communication with regulators.
Our experts track global environmental regulations around the transport and delivery of oil and gas products. We decode regulations, enabling you to process oil and gas in accordance with local laws and avoid costly shutdowns or delays. We support compliance with state and federal Clean Water and Clean Air Act requirements, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits. We can also perform detailed carbon footprint and lifecycle assessments.
Flare-ups or burn-offs from equipment malfunctions can release gases or other products into nearby communities. Our experts have decades of experience assessing refinery releases and their effects on human health. We evaluate how releases affect the people living near facilities, including developing documentation and reports for regulators, courts, and health agencies.
Efficiency is crucial in refining, with even small decreases affecting production and profitability. We can assess equipment maintenance schedules and processes to identify opportunities that help minimize down time for equipment "turn-arounds," saving time and money. Our industrial hygiene and safety specialists can also evaluate maintenance procedures, reducing accidents and worker injury.

Our Capabilities Are Unparalleled

Our experts provide a wide variety of services for refining, including failure analysis, environmental impact and remediation assessment, human health assessments, safety assessments, and more.

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Oil Refinery Gas Chemical Equipment Prodiction

Oil & Gas Consulting

Address engineering, compliance, and safety challenges across upstream, midstream, and downstream operations.

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Materials & Corrosion Expertise for Pipelines and Process Piping

Minimize pipeline and piping failures with integrity and pipeline risk assessments.

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Thermal Sciences Expertise for Energy Systems

Energy systems design, safety, and compliance consulting across a range of industries, including oil and gas, renewable and utility power generation.

Oil Spill Assessment

Emergency response, spill, and natural resource damage assessments leveraging sophisticated geospatial analysis and environmental monitoring capabilities.

Computational Modeling; Thermal Sciences

A less expensive and faster alternative to thermal or flow experiments.

Natural Resource Damage Assessment

Multidisciplinary natural resource damage assessments (NRDAs) to support navigating complex interactions with federal, state, and tribal trustees.

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Houston is our hub for the oil and gas industry. With experts across multiple disciplines, including Mechanical Engineering, Construction Consulting, Thermal Sciences, and Metallurgical & Corrosion Engineering, we can help you face today's biggest energy challenges.

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MATERIALS AND CORROSION CAPABILITIES [MCE]

Testing & Evaluations

Evidence You Can Act On

Exponent's labs go beyond commodity testing. We combine first‑principles engineering, real‑world data, and custom experiments to show what truly happens when equipment, materials, and industrial products meet the laws of physics — delivering multidisciplinary insights that give you clarity and confidence for high‑stakes decisions.

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Related Expertise

Environmental & Earth Sciences

Ecological & Biological Sciences

Metallurgical & Corrosion Engineering

Polymers & Chemistry

Thermal Sciences

Mechanical Engineering

Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

Relevant Right Now

How are geopolitical factors affecting downstream operations?

Geopolitical tensions are changing gas supply patterns, driving price volatility, and challenging long-term planning for downstream operators around the world. Shifts in pipeline flows, increasing demand for LNG, and evolving energy security and climate policies create uncertainty around feedstock availability, infrastructure needs, and regulatory exposure. Assessing how changing supply and operating conditions affect the integrity and performance of your facilities and equipment is essential in today's environment. This includes evaluating risks to critical assets and developing contingency planning. Exponent provides the technical insight you need to operate safely, adapt to disruptive events, and protect margins in an increasingly unstable market.

How can downstream stakeholders optimize operational efficiency while managing aging infrastructure and increasing environmental compliance?

Aging infrastructure, unexpected failures, and compliance costs are squeezing margins for downstream oil and gas entities. Having a strong grasp on asset health and lifespan to confirm its true remaining useful life is critical to avoiding premature retirement or downtime. Identifying operational vulnerabilities and inefficiencies before they impact production can help you optimize performance without major capital investment. When failures occur, rapid investigation can determine root causes and help you calculate losses, preventing costly recurrence. This approach — combining fitness-for-service assessments and responsive failure analysis — can help you maximize value while managing regulatory risk.

After a release or failure, what technical analyses matter most for regulatory response and determining impact?

Responding effectively to releases or incidents that may impact the environment increasingly requires integrating fate-and-transport with toxicology — defining how a particular oil and gas constituent moved and transformed through a given medium and its exposure and potential toxicity to ecological receptors.

In parallel, teams often need to engage with PHMSA, EPA, NOAA, USFWS, and state and tribal entities to address compliance frameworks including the Clean Water Act, NPDES pretreatment permitting, and related federal/state requirements. Where applicable, technical strategy may also include NRDA planning and documentation to support remediation/restoration decisions and communication with regulators.

Experts

Our global and comprehensive expertise across industries gives us a deep understanding of current challenges, best industry practices, and the implications of emerging technologies.