SASOL in South Africa, is responsible for around 50% of the total domestic fuel and lubricants market, largely through its world-leading coal-to-gas-to-oil conversion technologies. The Secunda site comprises the largest such production facility, some 10km x 4km of integrated process plant, with over 23,000 pressure vessels and a feedstock obtained from 5 coal mines operating 24/7. Great pressure has been applied to the unit production costs, product quality, and operational flexibility of the plant, and significant investment has been made in new technologies and ways of working. A more integrated Operational Reliability approach would be far-reaching in education, organization structure, and in potential benefits.
The first pilot studies of component activities (maintenance tasks, spares requirements, problem-solving/root cause analysis) revealed scope for multi-million dollar potential savings or performance improvements. A Reliability group was established to coordinate and facilitate the adoption of such methods, and a more systematic (criticality targeted) roll-out of RCM and RBI studies ensued. At the same time, a number of further studies were performed using the Decision Support Tools™ cost/risk optimization tools to explore not just what is worth doing, but the optimal amount, interval or timing of the tasks. These showed further spectacular benefits in cases ranging from turbo compressor inspections and maintenance, valve reliability and design, gas turbine rotor spares, pipeline corrosion monitoring and electrical protection system testing.
The study considered the top maintenance and risk areas, each modeled using Decision Support Tools DST™ to allow exploration of data uncertainty. This modeling identified the optimum maintenance or inspection interval, and the cost/risk penalty for deviating from the optimum. In cases where a 4-yearly turnaround cycle was found to be unachievable (too costly and/or risky), alternative designs, configurations or operating strategies were also evaluated. Such de-bottlenecking revealed considerable scope for cost/risk/performance savings, worth a total of $7.5m/year and representing a payback for the necessary capital investments involved averaging just 3 months.
The cost, performance and risk implications of current 2-yearly and proposed 4-yearly shutdown cycles were then quantified, and key decision drivers identified. This study revealed that an extension from the current 2-yearly shutdown to 4-yearly would hold net cost/risk improvements worth $2.8m/year. Combined with the improvements available from the ‘debottlenecking’ actions identified in individual equipment studies, this represents a total benefit from the study of $3.5m/year. This is based on conservative estimates for total cost, availability and risk effects, and includes ‘worst case’ projections for the associated risks (so the ‘most likely’ benefits are even greater).
Examples of individual study results include:
Change SAS Reactor Coil Guide beams to a new design, carbon steel or stainless steel to allowing 4-yearly inspection.
Install a second pilot unit on each Hot Quench Tower & Separator Drum Pilot Operated Relief Valve, allowing on-line maintenance of pilot and 4-yearly on the main valve.
In addition to the individual study results, the team assessed the current policy of conducting Planned Shutdowns on a 2 yearly major turnaround (15 days), plus 2.5 events per month of average 4 hours downtime (unplanned). The study recommended a 4-yearly turnaround, with a slightly higher frequency of minor stoppages in the second half of cycle. The business impact $4-9 million per year average production increase (£5.6m and $7m SAS trains respectively)
The Woodhouse Partnership would be delighted to show you how the SALVO process and Decision Support Tools™ can be implemented to benefit your business, contact us now for a free initial consultation. We look forward to hearing from you.
“We were facing the apparently urgent replacement for obsolete equipment to the order of tens of millions of pounds. With SALVO™ we were able to reduce this by 60% and renegotiate support arrangements for the foreseeable future.”
Mutual Energy has been recognised for effective asset management of critical infrastructure by achieving ISO 55001 certification.
This study was commissioned to ascertain the business case for re-tubing and to evaluate the life cycle cost benefits of alternative materials.
David Curtis, Director, Engineering Talent Management at Hydro One talks us through their experience with the Woodhouse Partnership and benefits of refining their asset management practices.
Over his 28 plus year span in the industrial sectors with working technical backgrounds in Project & Construction Management, Asset Operations and Maintenance Reliability Management, and being certified in various courses of study; Damien has gained the knowledge and experience and has had proven successes throughout his tenure in the Oil, Gas, Petro-Chemical and Construction sectors. Establishing his-self in the various sectors, Damien’s first experience and success started in the Construction Sector in estimating engineering. This was the stepping stone for Damien and has paved the way for his passion and continued success in supporting People, Process, and Systems in an organization.
Damien has held positions in local, international and multi-national corporations and comes from a working background in the fields of environmental, operations, project and construction management, operations maintenance and reliability management, planning, supervisory management, and has proven his abilities to succeed in each field.
Rich was an Engineer and Project Manager professional at the New York Power Authority for over 30-years. In addition to being the first Project Manager for the Niagara Project Upgrade, Rich rose to be the Vice President of Engineering having started in Operations Engineering decades earlier. Rich went on to be Vice President, Transmission and Substation at AECOM responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in design and construction. Rich joined Woodhouse Partnership, North America and participates in aligning organization towards ISO 55000 and many reliability studies supporting DST.
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Our Asset Management Academy is pleased to announce 2023 dates for our Masterclass – the benchmark for personal development and competency recognition for Asset Management Professionals
Executive in Operational Excellence, Asset Management and Best Practices in Projects, Operations and Maintenance in the Energy and Industrial Sector.
Consultant, Instructor and International Lecturer on issues related to project management (risk management), operational reliability, strategic management of operations, maintenance, Asset Management in the energy sector (ISO 55001) and Applied Data Analytics.
PMP, CMRP, IAM and CAMA certifications, being recognized by the SMRP in 2019 as CMRP of the Year https://smrp.org/2019-CMRP-Winners.
George has over twenty-five years of experience as a consulting engineer providing design, planning, program and project management, and strategic asset management services for asset-intensive organizations in the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East. His primary focus has been in the public infrastructure sector; as a result, he has intimate knowledge of the assets, processes, and resources necessary to deliver and sustain safe, reliable services to the customers of public asset-owning organizations.
George has assisted organizations with the development of PAS 55, ISO 55000, and GFMAM AM Landscape aligned asset management systems (AMS), has performed gap analyses of their AMS against industry standards and best practices, and has guided them through the creation of strategic asset management plans (SAMPs), asset management plans (AMPs), AM policy and supporting documents. He has undertaken asset risk modelling to ascertain organizations’ capability to sustain their desired levels of service. George has performed asset health-informed lifecycle cost modelling and forecasting capital and operational expenditures over near and long-term planning horizons.
With 30 years’ experience in utilities, oil & gas, transport and other sectors, John is one of the most widely known experts in integrated asset management projects for some of the largest companies in the world.
John is a Founder and Life Fellow of the IAM; he has written 4 books, chaired the development of BSI PAS55 and represents the UK on the ISO55000 committee.
He also led the international MACRO and SALVO collaboration projects in optimised asset management decision-making.
