Company Reduces Upstream & Midstream Assets’ Turnaround Duration, Increasing Production and Estimated Revenue to 25M USD

HIGH TURNAROUND DURATIONS LEAD TO MASSIVE PRODUCTION LOSS

An upstream-asset operating company recently participated in Solomon’s Worldwide Onshore Production Operations Performance Analysis (Onshore Study) to analyze the performance of its three onshore and natural gas assets. The benchmarking study revealed a significant opportunity to improve turnarounds.

It is understood that a long turnaround duration results in production and well pressure loss. The operator had a high average turnaround duration of 14 days per train of 19 production trains with a total of 107 compressors.

Solomon applied its Turnaround Excellence Process to develop a holistic turnaround and maintenance strategy with the objective to increase turnaround intervals and reduce turnaround duration.

STEP 1: STRATEGY ASSESSMENT

An “As Is” analysis process was conducted to understand the current processes for carrying out the maintenance of upstream compressors and to understand and include any existing strategic elements of the maintenance effort.

The analysis began with a collection of relevant data to evaluate the current execution of compressor turnarounds. Then, interviews were conducted with core team members in order to fully understand the current execution of maintenance activities, bottlenecks, gaps, and opportunities.

Through this process, a lack of company culture, communication, and collaboration between department became evident. These interviews enabled Solomon to develop a clear understanding of the client’s existing turnaround work practices, processes, general performance, and performance improvement objectives. The review covered required maintenance, operational steps, regulatory requirements, technical and process challenges, and upstream and downstream impact.

Based on collected data, interviews and performed analysis, Solomon generated and presented the “As Is” report of the current strategic position of the client’s maintenance of upstream compressors. Solomon also developed a report containing gaps and opportunities within the maintenance planning, process, and execution.

One key finding that aided in strategy development was that the client’s turnarounds were possibly being artificially constrained. Contributing constraints included executive decisions related to execution, including doing one turnaround (T/A) at a time, no significant overnight work, no overall workforce dedicated to the T/As, and no sourcing of critical skill sets, etc. Approximately 20% of the client’s wells was down waiting on evaluation or tools at any one time, causing significant production and revenue loss.

STEP 2: STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT

To achieve turnaround goals, the first task was to establish strategy basics:

• Establish a T/A Performance Project defining optimal T/A intervals and minimizing T/A duration.
• Assign a strong project management.
• Select a highly qualified project team.

Once the current strategy was assessed and the issues were identified, Solomon collaborated with the client’s project management team to define a future upstream compressor maintenance and turnaround strategy and prioritize improvement opportunities.

A SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHIP

The Turnaround Excellence Process yielded a successful collaboration between the client and Solomon. From this collaboration, Solomon further conducted a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) workshop that established a set of KPIs to monitor the progression on the execution of turnaround projects based on the recommendations in the strategy.

The client appreciated Solomon’s perspective on turnarounds – “the critical path never stops.” When the client looked at its schedule, it saw its turnaround path stopping constantly and then believed in the project improvement roadmap.

OVERALL BENEFITS