Common sense tells us that proper maintenance of oil and gas processing facilities is key, in today's tight energy market, to ensure continuous, uninterrupted operation. Unscheduled downtime can translate into gasoline shortages and higher prices. Recent events bring this close to home.
This month, an electrical failure shut down the 77,000 b/d catalytic cracking unit at Petroleos de Venezuela SA's, Cardon refinery in Venezuela, resulting in lower gasoline exports to the US.
In April, a coking unit fire at Tosco Corp.'s Carson, Calif., refinery caused a spike in reformulated gasoline prices in California and Arizona.
Last year, a pipe leak caused an explosion at Pertamina's 240,000 b/d Balikpapan refinery in Indonesia, resulting in limited fuel supplies for that country.
Also last year, a gas leak at Kuwait's 444,000 b/d Mina al Ahmadi refinery caused several gasoline process units to be offline for months.
In 1999, Hub Oil Co. Ltd., Calgary, was heavily fined for failure to maintain equipment in connection with an explosion at its used-oil recycling plant.
In 1997, an Esso Australia Ltd. gas plant in Victoria, Australia, exploded, killing two people and cutting the natural gas supply to the region by 89% for weeks.
Optimizing maintenance processes is the focus of a special report that begins on p. 68.
Cause
No single factor is culpable in each of these examples of systems breakdown; rather, it is almost always a combination of errors that results in such devastating loss of equipment and life.
Lack of training, unsafe procedures, pressure to meet production targets, and maintenance cost-cutting all contribute to equipment failure. In times of constrained product supply, these maintenance problems become exacerbated to the point of comprehensive safety breakdowns.
Union and management disagreements contribute to maintenance failure when experienced refinery personnel are replaced with inadequately trained contract workers.
In other cases, experienced engineers with a high comfort level of competence may become complacent and overlook standard procedures, particularly in the absence of periodic maintenance procedure reviews.
Effect
Poor or ad hoc maintenance procedures increase the likelihood of equipment failure or human error. When inappropriate maintenance practices are combined with atypical processing situations, the result can be costly.
Unscheduled downtime reduces production and increases operating and labor expense. Damaged equipment must be repaired and thoroughly inspected prior to start-up.
In the event of an accident, gross negligence suits by personnel or surviving family members garner punitive damages not available under workman's compensation remedies. In the US, corporate lawyers are called upon to negotiate reductions of citations or fines levied by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal administrative branches.
Increasingly, past violations are used as precedents for new civil or criminal court cases.
Solution
Planned preventive maintenance increases reliability. Detailed, site-specific maintenance schedules, procedures, and training are critical for long-term profitable operations and safe working conditions. Maintenance procedures should include five phases: initial survey of process, onsite study, development of schedule and training, implementation of maintenance program, and follow-up to determine success rate. Smart energy management software programs can increase maintenance efficiency.
"Maintenance, housekeeping, training, communication, and planned repair procedures are important aspects of any industry's accident prevention program," stated Mike Craddock, senior investigative technologist, Engineering Systems Inc. (ESI), Kingwood, Tex.
In the area of safety maintenance, ESI offers specialist expertise in failure analysis after industrial explosions or fires for petrochemical, refining, and natural gas plants and propane facilities. ExxonMobil Corp. and Shell Oil Co. are among those on ESI's client list.
For specialized training, the Texas Engineering Extension Service of Texas A&M University conducts training at Brayton Fire Training Field in College Station, Tex. The 120-acre campus features full-scale buildings, towers, tanks, industrial plant structures, and a ship that are used during life-like accident simulations.
The Construction Industry Institute, a nonprofit organization in Austin, offers a zero-accident construction safety course for general contractors and engineering companies that includes five specific areas of safety, including facility maintenance issues.
Other companies offering experienced, professional assistance for process facility maintenance mangers can be found at http://ogj-pennnet.prosavvy.com.