Various hydrocarbon and other industrial gases are essential to the production of the various fuels and petrochemicals we use in industry today, and are essential building blocks of modern life.
The trade in these commodities is now both truly global and immensely complex. Gases are moving around the world in volumes and between destinations that were unimaginable only a few years ago. The transport of hydrocarbon and chemical gases is a complex and specialist business, with great potential for profit but also with a number of technical challenges that need to be addressed.
Quality control, and particularly the monitoring of absolute purity of gases, is essential to producers, traders and distributors. At SGS, we carry out full specification testing to International, national, trade or company-specific standards on gases.
Our gas laboratory network provides a wide range of test capabilities including the routine determination of purity by GC, GC-MS and, where necessary the more advanced GC-MS technique. We also provide the more traditional determinations of basic physical parameters such as freeze point, density, vapor pressure and dew point. Our global network of laboratories exists to supply good quality risk management data to all interested stakeholders.
Our labs analyze gas samples on demand from refineries, storage facilities, chemical plants and storage tanks. We can provide either standard tests as defined in contract or other trade specifications, or bespoke testing, designed to address certain known risks (e.g. COS testing on gas rundown samples).
SGS is your first port of call for testing and inspection services for the whole range of hydrocarbon and chemical gases.
SGS maintains laboratory quality and monitors proficiency by means of internal and third-party round robin testing programs, internal and independent audits, together with rigorous training and competency compliance standards. Our analysts around the world operate in labs which are equipped with the very latest technology and many are ISO/IEC 17025-accredited, enabling us to offer you analytical testing to the very highest standards.
We are an active member of several key industry bodies, standards organizations and working groups, including those within ASTM, ISO, CEN, EI (The Energy Institute, formerly the Institute of Petroleum) and IFIA.
Any trade inspection nomination that we conduct on oil, gas and chemical cargoes is based on accepted core petroleum and petrochemical standards, such as API MPMS, UOP, GOST, ASTM, EN or IP test methods and specifications as set out by ISO, CEN or national and regional standards organizations. Analytical methods which have been supplied by clients or custom-built are also used should they form part of the specifications. If required, we can also help clients select the most appropriate standards to cite and use to support effective risk management within a particular transaction. We also offer technical support on all matters relating to working practices, standards and technologies.
Find out more about gas testing services from SGS.