ENERGY forecasts in late 2008 are responding to prospects of global economic downturn by reducing the expected pace of demand growth for oil and natural gas. Demand growth, however, will continue, especially in less-developed countries.
Prospects for rising energy demand, however subject to global economic conditions, continue to push oil and gas operating rates among industry’s production, processing, and transportation equipment to nearly maximum rates. Prices, also moderating in 2008, nevertheless are still rising enough to stimulate expansion.
Now as almost never before, effective equipment maintenance is crucial. While existing equipment is busy and construction is booming, unscheduled downtime is costly if not catastrophic.
PennWell Corp’s Oil & Gas Maintenance Technology (OGMT) and Pipeline Rehabilitation & Maintenance (PRM) conferences and exhibition provide a forum for maintenance professionals to learn from one another.
In December 2007, the inaugural OGMT joined the well-established PRM at a three-day parallel event in Manama, Bahrain. Total registration exceeded 1,100.
OGMT and PRM will run concurrently for a second time, along with the exhibition, on January 19-21, 2009, in the Gulf International Convention & Exhibition Centre, Manama in Bahrain.
Interest of the oil and gas industry in maintenance and reliability is very high. The industry spends huge sums each year on new equipment of ever-growing scale and increasing complexity. At the same time, it continues to use equipment that, although decades old in some cases, must nevertheless meet ever-higher standards for efficiency, safety, and environmental performance. Effective maintenance and reliability protect against the potentially heavy cost of equipment failure as well as against dangerous and environmentally damaging accidents. Modern oil and gas companies approach maintenance systematically. They address such functions as cleaning, aligning, and lubricating equipment components; filtering hydraulic and other fluids; integrating maintenance with operations, engineering, and other functions; employing specialty metals and materials; and maintaining technical databases.
They inspect equipment regularly and schedule preventive maintenance carefully. They measure results of their programmes and assess maintenance costs in relation to estimates of the costs of replacing equipment. When equipment failures occur, companies have well-developed methods for analysing the problems to prevent recurrence by improving maintenance.
Public attention has been drawn to the subject of oil and gas industry maintenance mainly through a relatively few accidents involving pipelines. Nearly all such pipeline mishaps result from intrusion from, for example, careless excavation rather than from faulty maintenance.
Still, many pipelines have been operating for many years and need rehabilitation – a subject of interest not just to pipeline owners and operators but to regulators and people who live near pipelines as well.
Public scrutiny is appropriate but unfortunate to the extent it draws attention away from maintenance and inspection efforts in other parts of the industry.
In fact, those efforts are intense in all oil and gas functions. And the Middle East, where conditions are harsh and operations among the largest in the world, represents an important proving ground for maintenance practice.
