Aker Kvaerner and IBM have established an alliance for Condition Based Maintenance of oil and gas plants in Norway, a monitoring system which reduces plant downtime for ongoing maintenance.
The initial focus will be on installations in the North Sea and onshore in Norway, with long term plans to expand internationally.
With the establishment of the IBM Oil & Gas Centre of Excellence in Stavanger, the parties have defined a joint business opportunity within Condition Based Maintenance.
Collecting process data and condition data, information flow between the plant and the centre onshore, data analysis, condition reports and establishment of effective maintenance programs and routines are included in the offering.
A recent report by the The Norwegian Oil Industry's Association (OLF) states that it is possible to extract increased revenues of £21bn using Integrated Operations. One of the areas where improvements and benefits can be gained, the OLF contends, is through improving the efficiency of the maintenance process.
Most maintenance in the industry requires a time-consuming and expensive total shut-down of equipment. Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) reduces the downtime through more efficient condition monitoring. Inspection and exchange of data in real time communicated through open integrated systems and solutions in real time provides increased operating time, reduced maintenance costs; improved exploitation of resources and better maintenance of equipment.
Warnings of potential equipment problems are provided in advance, reducing safety hazards at both on- and offshore plants. The alliance will also investigate ways of reducing costs associated with both planned and unforeseen maintenance work.
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