Why oil and gas reliability is changing now

Oil and gas operators are under sustained pressure to run safely, reliably, and predictably—often with aging assets, tight maintenance windows, and increased scrutiny on integrity management. In high-hazard process environments, mechanical integrity disciplines exist for a reason: failures can have outsized consequences, so leading sites codify procedures, training, and verification rather than relying on tribal knowledge. 

At the same time, organizations are moving from interval-driven maintenance to a risk-informed focus. Risk-based inspection (RBI) frameworks are designed to concentrate inspection resources on the equipment and degradation mechanisms that matter most, instead of treating every system as equally urgent. 

Finally, reliability programs are increasingly expected to be teachable and repeatable across units, shifts, and contractors. That means having consistent failure terminology, disciplined data capture, and documentation that survives handoffs—learning compounds instead of resetting after each repair cycle. 

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What you will get from this guide

This guide helps teams make practical decisions that protect uptime and reduce repeat failures across rotating equipment, valves/actuators, and other reliability-critical interfaces. It focuses on how to evaluate what is failing, what to control in design and maintenance, and how to qualify and sustain an approach through sourcing and change control.

On this page: 

• 60-second overview
• The system view (what the end-to-end system must do)
• What fails in the real world (failure modes and why they happen)
• Decision criteria (how to choose the right approach)
• Guidance for specifiers (designing and specifying the right solution)
• Guidance for operators and maintenance (protecting uptime in the real world)
• Guidance for procurement and sourcing (risk, continuity, and qualification)
• Implementation roadmap (how teams roll this out)
• How ChemPoint can help
• Recommended next steps 
• FAQs

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60-second overview 

Reliability in oil and gas is not one program or one piece of equipment. It is the combined outcome of how assets are designed, how interfaces are protected, how degradation is detected, and how change is controlled over time. 

Most repeat failures present as familiar symptoms—heat, vibration, leakage, sticking, abnormal wear—but the drivers are often consistent: contamination and lubricant health, interface degradation, inspectability gaps, and variability introduced through maintenance events or substitutions.  

The objective of this page is to give you a system-first way to identify where issues concentrate, choose an approach that can be executed in the field, and sustain it through documentation and governance—not just a one-time fix. 

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The system view (what the end-to-end system must do) 

A reliability system must prevent small degradations from becoming production-impacting failures. In practice, that requires three things: protect critical interfaces under real operating conditions, detect degradation early enough to act, and prevent unmanaged change that reintroduces known risk pathways. 

This is why mechanical integrity disciplines emphasize written procedures and verification. When inspection/testing, documentation, and training are consistent, teams can keep the why behind the design intact through handoffs and maintenance cycles.  

System boundaries and interfaces (where issues concentrate) 

Most problems concentrate at interfaces: bearing surfaces, valve stems and seats, actuator mechanisms, threaded connections, sealing faces, and couplings. These are the points where friction, sealing, and contamination intersect and where assembly variability is most likely to show up as leakage, wear, or loss of function. 

A useful system boundary is the “last inch” where a failure becomes real—the packing set that must seal while moving, the bearing housing that must stay clean, the mechanism that sits idle for months and then must actuate on demand. 

Operating conditions that drive design choices 

Oil and gas duty is rarely gentle. Temperature cycling, vibration, intermittent operation, chemical exposure, washdown, and airborne contaminants all change what “good enough” looks like for interfaces that slide or seal. 

Real-world constraints that shape decisions (space, uptime, safety, qualification) 

Constraints drive outcomes. If equipment is hard to access, condition verification becomes inconsistent. If outage windows are short, corrective work gets deferred or rushed. If qualification and documentation are weak, substitutions and “equivalents” creep in and reliability learning gets erased.  

High-consequence environments raise the bar further. Process safety frameworks reinforce the need for disciplined procedures and Management of Change (MOC), because silent change is a recurring pathway to risk.  

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What fails in the real world (failure modes and why they happen) 

A useful reliability lens starts with what you can observe, then works backward to the controllable drivers. Many failures are not random; they are the end of a chain of degradations that were not visible, not acted on, or reintroduced through variability in maintenance and sourcing. 

The failure modes below are common across asset types. The details vary by unit and duty, but the patterns are consistent—especially around interfaces, contamination, and inspectability.  

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 Interface wear and friction escalation 

When protective films break down or surfaces degrade, friction increases. That can show up as heat, sticking, reduced actuation margin, abnormal wear, and increasing maintenance frequency. Over time, this becomes “normal” until a failure forces attention. 

Prevention is rarely a single intervention. It is the combination of selecting an approach aligned to duty, maintaining it in a healthy state, and verifying in the field that the interface is behaving as intended. 

Contamination ingress and lubricant condition loss

If you cannot keep interfaces clean, you must at least make contamination visible and manageable. This is why inspectability features and consistent checks matter as much as the initial selection decision. 

Leakage initiation and escalation 

Leakage often begins as small interface degradation, assembly variability, or relaxation over time. Without early detection and a disciplined response, small leaks become larger leaks, and larger leaks bring safety and environmental exposure along with a higher maintenance burden.  

Treat leakage as a signal, not just a defect. If teams track where it starts, what changed beforehand, and how quickly it progresses, they can identify the repeatable drivers and prevent recurrence. 
 

“Invisible until it fails” issues are driven by poor inspectability 

A recurring reliability problem is not technical at all: teams cannot see the condition they need to control. If the oil level or condition is hard to verify or if components require extraordinary access, checks become inconsistent and degradations compound.  

Solve this by designing for inspection routes, clear observation points, and repeatable check sheets that make the right behavior easy, not heroic. 

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Decision criteria (how to choose the right approach) 

Good decisions separate what must be true for the interface to survive (physics) from what must be true for the organization to execute consistently (process). Reliability needs both a technically sound approach and a delivery system that prevents drift. 

A practical way to operationalize this is to align design and selection decisions with the same taxonomy and documentation discipline you will use to run and maintain the asset. Standards exist because consistent definitions and data capture enable repeatable learning.  
 

Performance and reliability requirements 

Start with the dominant failure mode you are preventing and the duty that causes it. Then define what acceptable looks like in the field: leakage tolerance, temperature rise boundaries, required actuation behavior, and the inspection signals that should trigger action. 

When success criteria are measurable, they are more likely to survive handoffs and shift changes. When they are vague, reliability becomes subjective and inconsistent. 
 

Compatibility/Constraints and trade-offs 

Compatibility is not only chemical; it is operational. Ask whether the approach will remain stable in your environment, whether it tolerates the contamination and duty cycles you actually have, and whether the necessary checks can be performed with available skills and time. 

Trade-offs matter. A technically superior approach that cannot be executed at the required cadence will fail in practice. A readily executed approach that introduces unmanaged substitution risk will also fail—just later and more expensively. 

Maintainability and lifecycle considerations 

Maintainability is a design input, not an afterthought. If verification is difficult, it will not be done consistently, and the system will drift until it fails.  

Lifecycle discipline also depends on change control. MOC is a core expectation in process safety programs precisely because small changes can compound into major risks. Apply the same thinking to reliability-critical substitutions and “equivalents.”  

Design and selection checklist:

• Define the operating envelope and the dominant failure mode you are preventing.  
• Confirm the interface is inspectable (observation points, access, and repeatable checks).  
• Identify contamination pathways and define controls appropriate to the duty.  
• Specify what must be documented to preserve intent through handoffs and maintenance cycles.  
• Define substitution triggers that require review and MOC discipline.  
• Align inspection and maintenance effort to risk (criticality and consequence). 
• Validate that the approach is executable with available labor, skills, and outage windows.  

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Guidance for specifiers (designing and specifying the right solution) 

Specifiers have disproportionate leverage because they can prevent failures before they are “baked in” to the lifecycle. The highest-impact design move is to make critical interfaces inspectable and maintainable without extraordinary effort—because execution always degrades when it is hard.  

The second leverage point is documentation that survives handoffs. When a spec package defines what must be controlled, how success is verified, and what changes require review, the system is less likely to drift during maintenance cycles and contractor work.  

What to validate during design review 

Validate access for inspection routes and routine checks, including observation points for leakage and condition verification. Ensure the design supports the checks you expect teams to do, not only the checks you wish they would do.  

Also, validate that design assumptions align with duty: temperature cycling, vibration, contamination exposure, chemical environment, and idle periods. In many cases, these “edges” are what drive the real failures. 

What to document in the spec package (so it survives handoffs) 

Document the intent and the controls: which degradation mechanisms you are preventing, which inspection signals matter, what constitutes unacceptable drift, and what substitutions require review. Include maintainability assumptions (access, interval expectations, and tools), so operators inherit a system that can actually be executed. 

Where applicable, align documentation to mechanical integrity expectations for written procedures, verification, and change control so reliability and integrity reinforce each other.  

 

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Guidance for operators and maintenance (protecting uptime in the real world) 

Operators and maintenance teams win reliability through consistent detection and disciplined response. When visual checks, routes, and check sheets are standardized, teams identify degradation earlier and prevent small issues from turning into outages.  

In high-consequence environments, the structure matters; written procedures, training, and documented inspection or testing reduce variability across shifts and contractors. Even when the language differs by site, the operating principle is the same: reduce drift, and repeatability improves.  
 

What to monitor and why 

Monitor the signals that precede failures: leakage, abnormal noise, temperature rise, condition changes visible at observation points, and changes in behavior after maintenance events. The goal is to detect degradation while there is still time to plan the right corrective action, not after the failure forces it. 

When possible, pair observations with simple decision rules (when to escalate, when to sample/analyze, and when to plan a repair). This reduces interpretation variability and improves response consistency. 
 

Maintenance practices that prevent recurring issues 

Treat reliability-critical work as controlled work: standardized job plans, clear inspection expectations, and a feedback loop that updates procedures when root causes are confirmed. When a failure repeats, assume the system variables did not change, even if the component did. 

Use consistent failure terminology and data capture so you can identify what is actually working over time. This is the foundation of learning organizations in reliability.  
 

Where standardization matters most 

Standardize at the highest-frequency interfaces: common pump families, common valve/actuator mechanisms, and inspection steps that verify condition. Standardization reduces misapplication risk, improves training effectiveness, and makes it easier to detect when drift begins. 

Standardization also supports procurement by reducing uncontrolled optionality that leads to substitution risk and inconsistent field outcomes.  

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Guidance for procurement and sourcing (risk, continuity, and qualification) 

Procurement influences reliability by controlling substitution risk and ensuring continuity for the approaches that engineering and maintenance depend on. When sourcing decisions introduce variability without governance, reliability learning gets erased, and failures become harder to prevent. 

A practical model is to align qualification depth to criticality and consequence. Risk-based frameworks provide the logic for doing this: apply more rigor where consequences are highest, rather than spreading effort evenly.  
 

Qualification requirements and documentation readiness 

Treat documentation as a gating item: clear technical information, application guidance, and acceptability criteria tied to the failure modes you are preventing. Where sites use structured reliability data capture, align supplier documentation so events and improvements can be tracked consistently.  

If your organization operates under mechanical integrity expectations, ensure qualification and documentation support written procedures and verification, rather than adding friction to them.  

Approved sourcing paths and substitution risk 

Define explicit triggers for when substitutions require review. Many reliability regressions occur when “equivalents” are introduced without understanding how they change interface behavior under real duty. 

Use change-control discipline to prevent silent change from becoming permanent reliability debt. MOC is a core expectation in process safety programs because it reduces this pathway.
 

Continuity planning (lead times, second sources, and change control) 

Continuity planning is not only about lead times. It is about preserving the reliability assumptions you have validated. When sources change, you must revalidate assumptions, update procedures, and maintain governance so inspection and maintenance practices do not drift.  

If second sources are required, define technical equivalency criteria and requalification steps in advance. That avoids emergency substitutions becoming a permanent risk. 

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Implementation roadmap (how teams roll this out) 

A practical rollout starts with criticality and repeat-failure history. Identify a short list of assets and interfaces where failures are frequent or consequences are severe, then standardize what “good” looks like for selection, inspection, and change control. 

Next, formalize the reliability language and the data you will collect. Consistent taxonomy and disciplined capture enable repeatable learning and targeted improvement.  

Finally, embed the practices into the work: operator rounds, job plans, procurement qualification checklists, and MOC triggers. This is how reliability becomes the default system, not a series of one-off fixes.  

Pilot → validation → rollout (what “good” looks like) 

A good pilot has clear success criteria: fewer repeat failures, fewer emergency work orders, earlier detection signals, and fewer uncontrolled substitutions. Track outcomes in a way that is comparable across time, not anecdotal.  

Validation should include field feedback. If a practice is technically correct but not executable in real conditions, it will fail—so adjust the workflow until it survives reality. 
 

Common rollout pitfalls and how to avoid them 

One pitfall is fixing the component without changing the system that produced the failure. Avoid this by updating inspection routes, job plans, and sourcing controls whenever a root cause is confirmed. 

Another pitfall is silent change. Prevent it with clear MOC triggers and documentation requirements that are easy to follow and hard to bypass.  

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How ChemPoint can help

Reliability is not just about choosing the right component; it is about sustaining performance under real-world conditions. ChemPoint partners with oil and gas operators, specifiers, and maintenance teams to close the gaps that drive repeat failures. Read on to learn how we help. 

Application expertise 

We translate reliability principles into practical product recommendations for your duty conditions—temperature cycling, contamination exposure, and intermittent operation—so the solution works in the field, not just on paper. 

Qualified solutions for critical interfaces 

From lubricants and sealing systems to specialty chemicals, we supply products engineered to protect the interfaces where failures concentrate: bearings, valve stems, actuator mechanisms, and sealing faces. 

Documentation and change-control support 

Our technical data sheets, compatibility guidance, and qualification resources align with mechanical integrity expectations—helping you maintain governance and prevent silent change.

Continuity and risk management 

We help procurement teams reduce substitution risk with approved sourcing paths, second-source planning, and lead-time visibility—so reliability assumptions survive supply chain variability. 

Responsive technical support 

When conditions change or failures persist, our specialists provide troubleshooting and alternative approaches that fit your operating envelope and maintenance constraints. 

ChemPoint does not just ship product—we help you sustain reliability through disciplined selection, documentation, and lifecycle support. 

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Recommended next steps 

If you are seeing repeat failures, start by mapping where issues concentrate (interfaces) and why they persist (contamination, inspectability, maintenance variability, or unmanaged substitutions). Then align your team on what must be standardized, what must be verified routinely, and what changes require review to prevent drift. 

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Ready to strengthen your reliability program? 

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FAQs 

What is the fastest reliability improvement that does not require new equipment? 

Start by making the system inspectable and consistent: clear observation points, standardized rounds, and check sheets that surface early warning signals. This shortens the time between degradation and corrective action.  

Why do failures repeat after we “fix” them? 

They repeat because a component was replaced, but the system variables did not change—duty conditions, contamination pathways, inspection discipline, or the steps used during maintenance. Repeatability improves when procedures and documentation are updated with the root cause.  

When should a substitution be treated as a formal change? 

When substitution affects reliability-critical interfaces or documented assumptions, it should be formally changed. Process safety programs emphasize Management of Change because silent change is a repeat pathway to risk.  

How do we decide where to focus inspection effort? 

Use risk-based logic to prioritize by consequence and probability of failure rather than uniform intervals. RBI frameworks formalize this approach for inspection planning.  

What is the biggest reason “good practices” do not stick? 

They are not executable. If verification is hard, it will not be done consistently. Design for inspection routes and workflow realism so the practice survives real staffing and access constraints.  

What should we standardize first? 

Standardize the highest-frequency interfaces and the inspection steps that verify condition, then enforce governance so substitutions do not silently unwind the standard. Consistent taxonomy and documentation make standardization scalable.  

Where can I learn more?

Please the below in-depth guides to further help:
MOLYKOTE® Lubricants for Oil & Gas