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ASSET MANAGEMENT
Stuart Querns, director for Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Delaware United Kingdom, shows how predictive
maintenance helps oil & gas companies keep control of costs
he global oil and gas industry has recovered strongly from the initial impact of the pandemic. The US Energy Industry Administration forecasts that global oil consumption will grow by 3.6 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2022 and by 1.8 million b/d in 2023, reaching 100.5 million b/d in 2022 and 102.3 million b/d in 2023. That’s positive news but this growth in demand will also bring challenges to organisations across the sector. More oil rigs will be commissioned and greater demand will be placed on existing platforms. With many oil & gas businesses managing ageing assets (some may have been in place for four decades or more), operations and maintenance (O&M) functions are already critical to protecting the bottom line, and that pressure is likely to grow over time. Implementing processes to analyse equipment functioning; pre-empt failure and avoid unplanned maintenance or system shut-down will therefore be crucial. Businesses also need visibility of equipment breakdown recurrence and related maintenance costs. This capability is key to the decision as to whether it would be cheaper to replace equipment instead of overspending on repairs.
REPAIR OR REPLACE? IMPROVING ASSET VISIBILITY T
inaccurate cost allocation and visibility across assets to repair overspend.
Moreover, as assets age, there is greater risk of unplanned maintenance. O&M teams need greater visibility of recurring breakdowns. Unfortunately, today, many rely on their engineers’ knowledge of the equipment and systems they maintain, and therefore risk losing information when employees leave. New technologies available today enable
flexible, intelligent maintenance operations that automatically recognise indicators of failures or defects, opening the door to predictive maintenance. This helps oil & gas companies reduce downtime and thereby increase productivity and profitability as well as enhancing safety and equipment lifetime. But this core technology must be coupled with a consulting led approach that drives uptime and cost control.
It is the role of operations and maintenance (O&M) functions within oil & gas businesses to deliver on this capability. Doing so will require having the correct solutions to achieve total visibility over equipment and repair or replacement costs and avoid recurrent breakdowns and unplanned maintenance. O&M teams are currently focused on four key drivers: reliability; operational cost reduction; profitability and safety. Their common pain points range from: the impact of unplanned maintenance to difficulties aligning planning and scheduling, and from
52 FEBRUARY 2022 | PROCESS & CONTROL
An approach based on ensuring cost collection at a work order level has the potential to bring clear benefits. This means oil & gas businesses can easily spot recurring equipment breakdowns and associated costs. Moreover, their maintenance teams can decide whether it is cheaper to replace or repair failing equipment. They can better plan maintenance routines or equipment swap overs and objectively analyse maintenance schedules and reliability.
Coupled with this, there is a need to achieve better cost analytics for repairs. Historically, many oil & gas companies struggled to get accurate equipment repair costs. If frequent repairs were needed, it was almost impossible to identify the critical point when the costs of repair rose above those of replacement. The process of making a decision about maintenance cycles, repair costs and replacements was delayed because asset
maintenance costs were not easily identified. All this is now changing. Consultants can help clients gather accurate repair costs for specific equipment and align this with data on breakdown recurrence and maintenance costs. Likewise, consultants and operators can work together to develop process and technology solutions to these issues by enabling maintenance and repair costs to be attached to a specific work order. This provides traceability of cost and frequency of repair or unplanned maintenance activity to those needing it. It also delivers the analytical detail, offshore installation managers (OIMs) and their teams require to make informed decisions whether to repair or replace equipment.
In addition to this, oil & gas companies must
find ways of achieving more accurate maintenance planning and scheduling by better understanding asset and equipment reliability. This, in turn, will enable them to reduce unplanned maintenance activities; extend the lifecycle of their equipment; and, last but not least, prevent maintenance scheduling issues caused by emergency breakdowns. To achieve all this though, they must improve analytics and cost allocation information to drive more accurate maintenance planning.
The above approach relies on a blend of consultancy expertise and technology solutions that deliver everything from predictive maintenance capabilities to system configuration changes, process automation and machine learning integration into end-to- end system processes. The result is minimised unplanned maintenance, accurate cost allocation and reduced overspend on repairs.
Delaware
www.delaware.co.uk
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