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Turnaround excellence is now operational

Published by , Senior Editor
Hydrocarbon Engineering,


Petrotechnics was recently chosen to help plan and execute a major turnaround (TAR) on one of the Middle East’s largest and most complex oil refineries. By deploying its solution – Proscient – the company ensured safety critical work was undertaken in a safe, standardised and efficient manner. It created a library of ready-to-use job safety analysis (JSA) templates and an optimised approach to TARs. This resulted in improved plant reliability, real-time understanding of the plant’s health status and continual development of TAR maintenance. This helped the operator to enhance safety performance and achieve operational excellence.

The operator

The operator runs an integrated oil refining and petrochemical operation that occupies a 3000-acre site in the Middle East.

The complex is a state-of-the-art facility that comprises of more than 20 plants and includes the one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated high olefins fluid catalytic cracker (HOFCC). The facility produces more than 18 million tpy of petroleum-based products and 2 million tpy of ethylene and propylene-based derivatives.

The challenge

The operator is committed to adopting best-in-class industrial practices, recognising international management standards, and ensuring compliance with all requirements regarding quality, health, safety and the environment (QHSE). As part of this commitment, and in accordance with its own company standards, the operator is required to complete a TAR every five years.

Performing a TAR on a site of this size and complexity involved substantial operational risks and a significant amount of potentially hazardous activity. With more than 2300 separate pieces of equipment, approximately 40 843 separate but interrelated jobs, and no historical activity to act as a guide, the TAR required both meticulous planning and exemplary execution to mitigate the risks and ensure that deadlines were met safely and efficiently.

The solution

Petrotechnics was chosen for the planning and execution of the TAR at the site, and deployed its enterprise-ready software platform for operational excellence in hazardous industries. The software platform helps companies to develop a standardised and repeatable approach to managing TAR activity. Its powerful visualisation capabilities give users real-time insight into the true status of any aspect of the plant, enabling them to make better informed operational decisions and manage risk across an entire facility.

In addition to the benefits of Proscient, the company was chosen because of its global expertise and specific experience in developing JSAs and risk assessments. The software platform supported and offered guidance at every stage of the TAR process, from planning through to execution.

The company also worked closely with the client to prepare and approve JSA templates to be implemented universally across all 40 843 tasks. Petrotechnics’ turnaround subject matter experts worked to meet the operator’s stringent safety standards.

The company then ensured that the client’s frontline employees were provided with the necessary JSAs to undertake safety-critical work in a standardised and safe manner, and to gain a better understanding of the hazards and appropriate controls needed for safe and efficient work.

The results

By deploying Proscient and working closely with Petrotechnics experts, the operator was able to standardise its TAR and lay the foundations for safer, more efficient future TARs.

The operator now has a library of ready-to-use JSAs that cover regular routine maintenance for the next TAR. This electronic archive of editable and readily copied and distributed JSAs ensures that the execution of each job is informed by extensive subject matter expertise and frontline knowledge, and complies with a standardised corporate policy and best practice.

Proscient has been integrated with all of the operator’s existing work-order planning systems to ensure that information used is uniform and consistent across all systems. By deploying the system across all users and assets at the same time and in the same way, every individual involved in a TAR can access identical information at all times.

As a result, the operator benefits from greater plant reliability and sustainability, as well as continual improvements to TAR maintenance. It has been able to improve real-time understanding of the health and status of the plant, improving its ability to allocate resources efficiently. Implementing Proscient has also enabled better handling of emergent work, by assessing it against risk criteria in order to complete more of the right work at the right time.

Overall, the operator has been able to fulfil its commitment to continual improvement in all of its activities related to QHSE.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/petrochemicals/01022017/turnaround-excellence-is-now-operational/

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