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Meeting the asset management challenge

09/01/2007

Statoil’s Kollsnes gas facility raises plant availability while minimising costs

Statoil, a major supplier of natural gas to the European market and one of the world’s leading producers of crude oil, strives for pacesetting performance across its asset base. So, with tight demand for gas causing price spikes, management at the Kollsnes gas treatment plant west of Bergen, Norway, investigated improvement opportunities.

Keen to improve understanding of the facility’s performance, Statoil commissioned a benchmarking study. Comparing Kollsnes’ operational and maintenance performance with other gas plants around the world revealed that the gas plant was achieving a good cost-per-standard-cubic-metre ratio. However, the analysis indicated potential for improvement in the cost-per-complexity factor. In particular, the plant’s maintenance costs were uncompetitive.

In response, the company commissioned Shell Global Solutions to conduct an asset management improvement study. Shell Global Solutions’ consultants worked with key Kollsnes staff in an integrated team with the objective of raising plant reliability and availability and, at the same time, reducing maintenance costs.

The team’s review was wide-ranging and tailored to Kollsnes’ needs. The review analysed the facility’s planning and scheduling of routine maintenance, business-risk management processes, cost-control procedures and areas such as shutdown management, contracts and procurement, and materials inventory management.

Improvements were identified in several areas, and the review resulted in detailed recommendations for improvement and a clear implementation plan. Kollsnes opted to focus its implementation programme on management of reliability and technical integrity, non-shutdown and shutdown maintenance, and basic care of equipment by operators.

Knut Kalvøy, programme manager, Statoil, Kollsnes, comments that the initiative has unlocked step-change improvements. “Our gas export factor has increased by 9.7% while our maintenance costs have fallen by 44%,” he says. “The initiative also reduced the plant’s work volume, which has freed personnel for other work.”

According to Nils Ottar Halland, site manager, Statoil, Kollsnes, one of the keys to the programme’s success was the way in which it motivated the workforce and helped to achieve ownership of the changes. “It engaged the operational and maintenance personnel, and improvements in behaviour and teamwork are clearly visible,” he says.

Another key feature was the design and implementation of structured business processes. “These helped us to streamline our working practices,” comments Kalvøy. “Our operations and maintenance functions now support our business processes; previously, responsibilities were scattered and there was no clear accountability.”

By introducing structured work processes and successful industry practices, Kollsnes has become one of Statoil’s leading facilities. “We knew from the start that there was room for improvement,” Halland points out. “But the results of this project have exceeded our expectations.”