Preventive and refinery maintenance are crucial to optimize your refinery’s operations. By identifying problems before they happen, you can avoid costly and unnecessary repairs. You can also minimize unplanned downtime and improve safety while enhancing environmental control. With Matrix NAC’s highly trained personnel, you can operate refinery equipment and systems continuously. Preventive and predictive maintenance can save you significant amounts of money, as well as improve the safety and health of employees and the environment.
Refinery turnarounds
Refineries undergo planned breaks in production to perform scheduled maintenance, such as overhauls and preventative maintenance. Fuel supplies will be interrupted during these times, so they need to be prepared. However, they are often an unwelcome distraction. We can also discuss what to expect during these periods.
Refinery maintenance turnarounds are costly but necessary to ensure the smooth operation of the company’s operations. The process of completing a turnaround involves extensive planning and coordination of labor. The turnaround can last for weeks, months, or even years, depending on its scope. Turnarounds are often the largest part of a plant’s maintenance budget and can have a dramatic impact on the bottom line. Fortunately, turnaround project management is specialized to the needs of a particular site.
In addition to reducing production, turnarounds allow plant operators to make upgrades and debottleneck processes. Typically, plant operators will hire contractors or use their regular workforce. Because employees are unfamiliar with the process, there is a higher risk that something will go wrong. Employees may also cut corners or ignore basic safety procedures. Turnarounds are also very costly for companies, so hiring experienced managers is crucial. So, what happens during a turnaround?
Cost of unplanned repairs
A major portion of a refinery maintenance budget must go toward repairing engineered systems and equipment. These systems and equipment malfunction and can have devastating effects on the oil industry and the bottom line. Unplanned repairs, also called corrective maintenance, are among the most expensive activities of refinery maintenance. They are difficult to control and predict. Many factors make these repairs ineffective, including insufficient personnel and tools, unexpected technical requirements, and lack of access to the affected system.
Oil refineries, in particular, are especially vulnerable to unplanned shutdowns. Without a backup system, they are forced to shut down. Without any additional capacity, unscheduled repairs can cost an oil and gas company as much as $38 million per day? Further, such repairs can introduce contaminants into the downstream pipeline, resulting in product quality degradation and damage to downstream equipment. Thus, the cost of unplanned repairs at oil refineries is enormous.
Predictive maintenance can prevent unplanned breakdowns by giving a head start to prevent them. The oil and gas industry employs aging machinery. Machinery at oil refineries is on average 15 years old, so periodic inspections are important to keep it running smoothly. By applying predictive maintenance, Repsol reduced its unplanned breakdowns by 15%, saving $200 million a year. According to ARC Advisory Group, US refineries lose more than $6 billion a year due to unplanned repairs and poor equipment maintenance.
Importance of EAM/CMMS master data
An EAM/CMMS provides a single view of the entire facility and helps manage maintenance processes across the organization. Often, this data is called master data. It includes asset hierarchies, tasks, and FLOC. In many cases, these master data are customizable. Other data, such as BOM, RSPL, and other documentation, may be included. The most important aspect of a maintenance management system is its ease of use.
In addition, EAM/CMMS systems can help refineries manage their fleet, including spare parts, equipment records, and work orders. The master data from these systems is stored centrally in a secure database that can be accessed by multiple users and is mobile-friendly. The system also ensures proper maintenance management, preventing unplanned downtime and threats to optimal production. Additionally, it streamlines tasks and processes. It also provides real-time updates on work orders.
EAM/CMMS master data helps refineries manage assets efficiently. The system contains all physical asset information. It includes warranty records, parts catalogs, purchase orders, as well as audit trails. It also contains contact information and RFPs. It also provides refinery turnaround personnel with the ability to manage contracts and inventory. A refinery’s master data helps them plan and schedule maintenance and repair activities and ensure they’re getting the most efficient and reliable service.
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