Keywords: Fire and Gas Systems, Field Devices, Process Industry, Gas Detectors, Flame Detectors, Fire Detectors, Safety
Compliance with increasingly stringent safety regulations is the driving factor behind the investments in the fire and gas systems market. Threat of an industrial accident in the wake of several high profile accidents has pushed regulatory authorities to impose stricter regulations as well as make efforts to better enforce these regulations. ARC Advisory Group believes that owner/operators have also changed their viewpoint regarding safety in recent years. Many end users no longer view capital expenditure for safety as pure cost. Rather, it is viewed in part as an investment to protect plant assets, save human lives, and avoid heavy fines.
The fire and gas systems market will continue to offer opportunities for suppliers despite the current overall downturn in investments from the upstream oil & gas industry, according to the new ARC Advisory Group “Fire and Gas Systems Global Market Research Study”. “While the ongoing low oil price situation will certainly keep capital investment low in the oil and gas industry in the near future, orders from the chemical and refining industries are expected to drive growth in the first half of the forecast period and recovery of the oil and gas industry to drive growth in the latter half of the forecast period,” commented ARC Analyst Inderpreet Shoker, the principal author of the study.
Low Oil Prices
Upstream oil & gas companies around the world are struggling to realign their operations in the face of the precipitous decline in oil prices. Many integrated oil companies, oilfield service providers, and independent E&P players have reduced budgets between 10 to 70 percent. Companies are reducing staff, canceling or delaying projects, and reducing their capex budgets. In 2014, project activity was slowing down due to the increasing scrutiny put on capital expenditures. Since then, the ongoing low oil prices, increasing uncertainty regarding the global economy, and the reduced project activity in China, have all converged to significantly hamper large Capex projects and limit fire and gas systems market growth.
Move Towards Performance Based System Design
Increasing regulatory pressure and standards compliance create an environment that encourages end users to increase their investments in plant safety. The rising concern about safety is helping drive adoption of performance based safety standards. With the acceptance of the concept of functional safety, many end users are designing their fire and gas systems to conform to the guidelines put forth in IEC 61508/61511. The ISA 84 committee has released ISA 84.00.07 technical report, which puts together new techniques and metrics specifically for designing fire and gas systems.
Apart from the SIL level, the report focuses on geographical detection coverage as well as scenario coverage. The report provides an insight to the all-encompassing guidelines. With this information, end users will be better equipped to design their fire and gas systems and deploy complementary technologies as required.
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