IMC-2018 Learning Session 53:05

by Feras Abbas, Saudi Aramco

The nature of Abqaiq plants mode of operation dictates that most of the 3,500-major rotating equipment, excluding their sub systems and auxiliary systems, run on a continuous basis throughout its expected life cycle. In order to protect these equipment, they are connected with an elaborate ESD system composing of many types of sensors and switches for protection. With such systems, real and spurious trips occurred that caused operational hiccups and losses. As part of ABQ plants failure analysis program, a customized internal process was developed to focus on such explicit failures. Thus, in 1997 the trip analysis program was introduced to address the casual factors of these trips and maintain sustainable hydrocarbon processing. Through twenty years, this reliability program has evolved and has resulted in tremendous improvement. We will show case the history of our trip analysis program and the metrics used to help assess the performance of these equipment from a trip prospective. Then we will go over each iteration of our trip analysis program and what enhancements occurred during that phase. Furthermore, we will share our latest enhancement to the program that started to be implemented in 2017 through 2018. Finally, the resultant reduction in number of trips will be discussed through a historical illustration and our way forward to improve further. Shearing such experience will yield grate benefits to other organizations.