Client: Confidential
Location: Confidential
Sector/Industry: Oil & Gas Refinery 
Completion: 2025

Project Background

A client initiated a programme of selective demolition works, involving the removal of several redundant structures within an operational, highhazard industrial environment at its oil refinery. The proposed demolition methodology was based on the controlled use of explosives to induce progressive collapse of several structures of varying form, scale, construction, and potential structural behaviour.

Given the sensitivity of the refinery setting—characterised by legacy infrastructure, residual contamination risks, and stringent safety and regulatory requirements—the client required knowledge based technical assurance of the contractor’s explosive demolition design prior to execution.

RVA was engaged to provide an independent review of the explosive demolition design, acting on behalf of the client to ensure that the supplier proposed approach was technically robust, a valid method within the constraints of the site, and aligned with best practice for explosive demolition.

Scope of RVA Services

RVA’s commission focused on a structured, independent review rather than design development, and included the following elements:

• Review of the contractor’s design philosophy, including the overall collapse mechanisms proposed for each structure and the rationale behind the chosen explosive strategy
• Independent review of design calculations, assessing assumptions, load paths, failure sequences, and sensitivity to uncertainty
• Technical commentary on the background information provided, including drawings, structural data, and demolition sequencing assumptions
• Review and comment on proposed explosive charge weights and placement for each structure, considering structural response, fragmentation control, and collapse predictability
• Identification of risks, omissions, or inconsistencies within the submitted design package
• Provision of recommendations, where appropriate, to enhance safety, robustness, or clarity of the demolition proposals

The independent review provided the client with clear and objective assurance that the proposed explosive demolition designs had been critically assessed by a competent third party with relevant industrial demolition expertise and experience. 

Challenges

The project presented a number of technical, regulatory, and communication challenges, primarily due to the specialist nature of explosive demolition within a live hydrocarbon production environment. 

Key challenges included: 

• Absence of formal regulatory requirements for independent checking
  Unlike some other jurisdictions, national regulations do not explicitly require independent checking of temporary works or explosive demolition designs. As a result, there was no predefined approval framework or benchmark for independent review, the client requested RVA to define a proportionate assurance approach aligned with international best practice and RVA’s managing system rather than local prescriptive requirements.
• The demolition works were planned within an operational refinery environment, increasing sensitivity to safety, asset protection, vibration and reputational risk. This heightened the need for conservative assumptions, clarity of collapse mechanisms, ground vibration assessment and robust justification of proposed explosive charge weights.

Solutions

RVA implemented a structured, proportionate assurance approach to address the identified challenges and to support the client’s decisionmaking and governance requirements.

• RVA initiated and facilitated a series of technical stakeholder meetings involving the client, contractor, and key advisors. These sessions were used to explain the proposed demolition concepts, challenge assumptions, clarify collapse mechanisms, and ensure that all parties had a shared understanding of the explosive demolition strategy and associated risks.
• Rather than duplicating the contractor’s entire design effort, RVA undertook ground upcalculation and method checking for a representative sample of structures. These sample checks were selected to cover the range of structural forms and demolition mechanisms proposed, providing confidence that the overall design philosophy and calculation approach were sound and could be consistently applied across the remaining structures.
• RVA reviewed and reinterpreted highly technical calculation outputs into clear, intelligible findings and conclusions, enabling nonspecialist client stakeholders to understand the basis of the demolition design, key sensitivities, and residual risks without requiring structural engineering expertise.
• In the absence of prescriptive national requirements for independent checking, RVA defined and documented a pragmatic review process aligned with international best practice for temporary works and explosive demolition assurance. This provided the client with a transparent, auditable framework for approval and signoff.
• Where appropriate, working with the explosive contractor, RVA provided practical recommendations to improve robustness, clarity, or safety margins within the proposed designs, supporting a conservative and defensible approach consistent with the refinery’s majorhazard operating environment. 

Outcomes / Results

Delivery and Programme

• RVA delivered the independent explosive demolition design review in accordance with the agreed programme, supporting the clients internal approval process without introducing delay to the wider demolition schedule.
• The scope was completed within the agreed fee and budget, reflecting a proportionate, riskbased review approach focused on critical elements rather than unnecessary duplication of design effort.

Safety and Risk Management Outcomes

• The review was completed without incident and supported a zeroharm objective by ensuring that proposed explosive methodologies were critically examined prior to execution.
• RVA’s involvement provided the client with early identification of potential technical and execution risks, reducing the likelihood of unforeseen issues during demolition works.
• The independent assurance process strengthened the overall safety case for the use of explosives within a highhazard Oil & Gas refinery environment.

Technical Assurance and Governance

• The client received independent confirmation of the robustness of the contractor’s design philosophy and calculation methodology, based on detailed checking of representative sample structures.
• The review enabled complex structural and explosive engineering principles to be translated into clear, understandable conclusions for nonspecialist decisionmakers.
• RVA’s work effectively filled the regulatory gap created by the absence of national mandatory independent checking requirements, providing a level of assurance consistent with international best practice.

Key Recommendations Issued

As part of the independent review, RVA provided a series of practical, riskreduction recommendations, including:

• Formal independent calculation checking to be maintained as a defined project control for all explosive demolition designs
• Improved presentation of calculations, with stepbystep explanations and narrative descriptions to allow lay stakeholders to understand assumptions, logic, and outcomes
• Trial testing of a cutting charge on a representative steel plate, to confirm cutting performance, charge sizing, and consistency with design assumptions
• Execution of a test blast on the brick chimney, to validate collapse behaviour and fragmentation characteristics prior to fullscale demolition
• Verification of reinforcement details on the reactor support structure, by exposing reinforcement on one representative leg to confirm alignment with design assumptions

These recommendations were intended to enhance confidence, reduce uncertainty, and improve predictability, rather than to mandate redesign.

Examples of the structures and columns demolished using explosives