Maintenance & Reliability
FCC collector tray leaks impact column operation
In the collective experience of the authors, one of the most troublesome pieces of refinery fractionation equipment is the collector tray.
Wood Group awarded 5-yr maintenance contract for Phillips 66 refinery
HOUSTON — Wood Group has been awarded a 5-yr, multimillion dollar contract by Phillips 66 to provide supplemental maintenance services and support for small capital construction projects and turnarounds to the Sweeny Refinery, approximately 65 mi southwest of Houston.
XOS launches analyzer for testing critical elements in petroleum refineries
ALBANY, N.Y. — XOS has announced the worldwide release of Petra MAX, a new D4294 analyzer with combined analysis of 13 elements from P to Zn. Petra MAX delivers high-precision sulfur analysis in addition to rapid monitoring of critical elements like Ca, Fe, K, Ni, and V at sub-ppm levels.
S.Korea's GS Caltex shuts heavy oil upgrading unit after fire
SEOUL (Reuters) — GS Caltex, South Korea's second-largest oil refinery, said it has shut a heavy oil upgrading unit after a fire mishap on Thursday.
Rosneft's Tuapse plant suspends oil refining from Aug. 7–10
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Unplanned maintenance works have suspended oil refining at the Tuapse refinery, owned by Russia's largest oil company Rosneft, from Aug. 7–10, data released by the Russian Energy Ministry showed on Wednesday.
Major turnaround at Neste refinery to complete planned production structure change
In mid-August, Neste will begin a two-month shutdown at its refinery in Naantali, Finland. The major turnaround will complete the plan first introduced in 2014 to implement closer integration of the operations of the two Finnish refineries under uniform management. The Finnish refinery operations of Neste consist of four production lines at the Porvoo refinery, and one in Naantali.
Rethinking the risk mitigation process and revitalizing operational safety
For the past 2 yr, oil prices have been in free-fall. At the time of writing, the WTI price is around $50/bbl, up slightly since OPEC’s May 2017 announcement to extend its September 2016 production cut of 2.2%.
Role statements needed for reliability job functions
Experience shows that written role statements impart great value to industries that have reliability professionals on staff.
Carburization inspection robots for radiant tubes inside ethylene cracking furnaces
In an olefins plant, the reliability of ethylene cracking furnaces is one of the deciding factors used to indicate whether or not the plant can be operated at its design productivity.
Does your control valve talk?
Pneumatic operated control valves (POCVs) are consistently the most used control final element for process control across most industries—in some cases, they are also part of the safety instrumented systems (SISs) layer.
- Brazil's Petrobras approves $1.2 billion investment for renewable fuels plant 6/22
- First batch of equipment arrives in Kazakhstan for $7.7-B Atyrau polyethylene project 6/22
- Explosion at Qatar's Ras Laffan LNG complex kills 13, injures 66 6/22
- Asia has plenty of crude oil, but refined fuels remain tight 6/22
- Fire extinguished at Marathon's Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas (U.S.) 6/22
- El Nino, expanding ethanol use squeeze India sugar supply 6/22
