GTS has major oil & gas Customers with air separation units. Each one is made up of a steam turbine through a gearbox driving the main air compressor. This main air compressor is the largest installed by MAN.
The main air compressors comprise of an axel and radial compressor in one casing with an intercooler in between the two. The booster air compressor boosts between the axel and radial compressor. Parts of the work on the booster compressor is considered to be oxygen service and therefore exceptional cleanliness requirements need to be adhered to when performing this maintenance work.
GTS partners with our oil & gas Customers to do a major turnaround on these steam turbines, every 4 years. We do this by mobilising technical teams of up to 200 specialised skilled individuals to site. The teams are made up of our own technicians that will take the lead together with augmented staffing from other technical hubs within our portfolio companies, located outside of country.
All units are completely opened and disassembled with all internal parts being taken out. The rotors as well as the stationery components then get transported to our workshop. At this point the Customer has two options, we can clean and inspect the existing components and then re-instate them into the units. Alternatively, should our Customer not have enough time, but has available spare parts such as complete rotating elements, we re-instate the new or completely overhauled parts (the ready to run spare parts), into the units. The units are then re-assembled for quality and safety testing.
The components removed from the steam turbines are then transported to our workshop for refurbishment. This includes a complete repair process being undertaken with disassembly and inspection reports.
GTS also partners with our Customers by suppling the ancillary services on-site during the shutdowns. These ancillary services include the cleaning and testing of intercoolers, the cleaning and testing of the oil systems, the checking of the functionality of the dry gas seal systems, as well as the cold and hot commissioning.
All this work is performed under the supervision of a number of key OEM experts which come to Qatar on a project basis for duration of these overhauls.
Typically, one air separation unit at our Customer will have eight streams, with one stream refurbishment taking approximately 2-3 weeks. The GTS team works on a 24 hour shift system on these projects, to ensure the major turnarounds are done quickly and efficiently. This involves doubling up on all teams as well as the ATSSE team, as all work needs to be conducted under extreme safety conditions within the oil & gas environment. The 24 hour shift system is to minimise downtime of Customers plant, turning it back into production as quickly and safely as possible.
These major turnarounds have extreme logistical challenges which the GTS team manages through a tight project scope and focused approach. Logistically GTS mobilises large crews from abroad into the country with visas, permits, mandatory safety training, testing and certification for all team members being done by the GTS.
GTS manages all logistics of transporting these components which can weigh up to 30 tons per unit in specialised containers. This is done on abnormal transport vehicles between site and our workshop and includes police escorts due to heavy loads on public roads.
In certain cases, in emergency breakdown requirements, we can arrange for specific heavy duty dedicated chartered flight transport to Germany and back to ensure minimum downtime of our Customers oil & gas plant.
Creating sustainable partnerships with our oil & gas Customers on these major turnarounds ensures that efficiencies on repairs are achieved, costs are managed optimally, downtime is reduced and safety across the entire overhaul project is achieved.
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