Verifying experience claims: years, sites and valve types

1. What an experience claim must contain

The phrase experienced valve maintenance contractor appears in many quotations and company profiles. Anyone can write that word on a website. A testable claim states who does the work, on which valves, and where.

This article sets out the questions that test such claims. It forms part of our guide on choosing an online valve maintenance provider. Years, sites and valve types are the three tests.

Apply the same questions to every bidder on your list, including us. A short call with each bidder is enough to start. Evasive answers tell you as much as plain ones.

2. Test the years claim with specifics

Years in business are easy to claim and hard to check directly. A company can be old while its field crews are new. So separate the two claims, then test each one.

1. Who will attend your site, and how long has that person performed injection work?
2. Which compounds have they injected, on which valve types, and in which service?
3. Who trained them, and how is their work checked before the valve returns to service?

We have worked in online valve maintenance for more than 30 years. We still expect buyers to ask these questions, and we answer them plainly. A provider who resents them is telling you something.

3. Ask about sites, not client names

Many contractors cannot name their clients, and confidentiality is normal in this industry. A client logo proves a contract existed, not that the work succeeded. Ask for the service conditions behind each reference instead.

1. Valve sizes, pressure classes and actuator types they have handled.
2. The service: wet or dry gas, crude, produced water, sweet or sour.
3. The country, the regulator and the permit conditions they worked under.

An engineer with genuine site history describes these details without hesitation. Vague answers, or answers that change between calls, suggest the experience is thinner than claimed. Treat such gaps as a signal, not a verdict.

4. Valve types and the failure modes that matter

Valve types matter because failure modes repeat. A risk-based valve integrity study of upstream and midstream sites, published by Valve World, reported a consistent pattern.

Passing valves made up 61 per cent of failures. Seized valves added 28 per cent, external leakage 6 per cent, other causes 5 per cent. Distributions vary by population, but the pattern is familiar.

Ask the contractor to walk through a passing valve, step by step. Injection treatment suits many valve designs, not every one. You should hear the following:

1. The gates: fittings in good condition, a design that suits injection, and a permit that allows work.
2. The method: cleaner before sealant, in controlled amounts within equipment and fitting ratings.
3. The stop conditions: the pressure response that would end the job.
4. The proof: a seat-leak test under agreed conditions, such as pressure decay or double block and bleed monitoring.

A contractor who names a stop condition is being honest, not cautious. Bubbles and flow indications are screening evidence that suggest a seat problem. Agreement on the acceptance test, before work starts, is the strongest sign of experience.

5. Evidence you can ask to see

Before any contract, a competent contractor offers evidence rather than adjectives. Ask for some or all of the following.

1. A written trial scope covering a small set of your own valves. Our trial scope template shows what one should contain.
2. Sample testing, so you judge compounds on your own bench first. See bench and sample testing before purchase.
3. A condition survey of your valve population, as an independent check. Our valve survey service works this way.
4. Field results described without client names. Our case studies directory follows that rule.

None of this replaces your own judgement. Together, though, it turns a claim into evidence you can weigh.

6. How to start with BTR VSI

If you are comparing contractors, send us the questions you send them. An engineer replies within 24 hours to any valve problem sent by WhatsApp or our contact form. You can also request the product guide through an enquiry. That reply is written by an engineer, not a sales desk.

Send the valve type, size, service and the symptom you see, with your site country. We will say plainly whether online treatment suits that valve. If it needs workshop repair or replacement, we will say that instead. The same details help whoever you choose in the end.