Necessity is the mother of invention

Asset Management & cost optimization

The oil and gas sector has from the early days of volume production and commercialization led the world in the use of predictive and preventative maintenance, developing models followed by many other sectors of industry. These techniques have been used as key tools to improve plant and process safety, efficiency and optimization and have underpinned the growth of a new discipline of asset management. 

 

Asset management is based on a strategic assessment that identifies plant improvement opportunities based on criticality and then defines and applies the most appropriate solutions. The objective is to incorporate business goals, application challenges and organizational culture into a road map that improves the reliability, performance and functionality of all operational extraction, process and distribution assets. A methodology of Asset Efficiency Optimization (AEO) is then applied to ensure that every asset is utilized as efficiently as possible, to maximize output without increasing capital expenditure, while reducing overall maintenance and operational costs. 

 

A successful asset management program depends on a clearly defined strategy. This has to be driven by business goals, starting with an understanding of the current situation and a vision of where the business needs to be to achieve optimum performance. 

 

This can be a difficult process to manage due to the complexity of the production and management systems found in many large, multi-site, multi-national oil and gas businesses. The starting point is generally to carry out a client needs analysis (CNA). This is based on a straightforward 40 question survey to provide a snapshot of the operation of each production facility, map the way in which its reliability processes are functioning and its position on the maintenance maturity continuum, benchmarked against industry averages and best practices