The stoppage that secures Preemraff’s productivity

Every six years, the entire Preem refinery in Lysekil is shut down for a maintenance audit. In September, it was time for another break in production for maintenance and investment. “We do this to ensure high productivity, efficiency and profitability,” says Håkan Hermansson, who is in charge of the audit.

Maintenance stoppages on this scale require enormous infrastructure and logistics. The downtime last autumn lasted a total of 67 days, including power-down and start-up. More than 2,400 people were present and worked on the audit during this time. The project organisation headed by Håkan Hermansson alone consisted of 300 people.

“It is a government requirement to do the audit and every six years we have to inspect all of our pressure equipment. If we don’t do it, we get a compulsory shutdown. A maintenance stoppage for the refinery is the equivalent of a car inspection for us as individuals,” says Håkan Hermansson, who works full time on the maintenance stoppages at the refineries in Lysekil and Gothenburg.

Much preparation is required
Planning for the autumn stoppage had been going on for a long time. For Håkan, the work already started two years before pressing the stop button.

“There is a lot of preparation needed before we even start the inspection. The logistics of getting 2,400 people to eat, get changed and travel to and from the refinery is a huge challenge in itself. But our biggest and most important challenge is safety. It takes precedence over everything else. We work intensively with preventive safety work and with frequent reconciliations, several times every day.

“During the audit, inspectors are brought in to perform X-rays and identify any indications of cracks, for example. A large proportion of all the pipes inside the refinery are included in the thorough review.

“We open up all the equipment, clean it and build internal scaffolding to give our inspection contractors the access they need. When we have closed down the entire refinery, emptied it of hydrocarbons, made it pressureless and cleaned everything, we take the opportunity to carry out the repairs and equipment maintenance that we cannot do during operations,” says Håkan Hermansson.

Budget of two billion
This means that thousands of jobs, large and small, are going on at the same time during the stoppage. Around the clock. In addition to maintenance work, new equipment is installed – in some cases, this involves investments in the SEK 100 million bracket.

The total budget for the audit stoppage is more than SEK 2 billion, and then there is the cost of lost production. So it is important to stay on schedule. Each extra unplanned day of downtime costs Preem up to SEK 10 million in lost production.

“In the short term, these are huge sums. It requires some effort to manage the SEK 855 million in cash, which is the budget for the maintenance part of the stoppage. All investment projects are managed with their own budgets.”

Continuous maintenance is highly important
When the audit stoppage is complete, the positive effects are noticed immediately, especially in terms of productivity.

“When we start up again after a maintenance stoppage, or in this case a major overhaul, the refinery is like a brand-new car. Everything can run at maximum capacity without any ‘hiccups’. We therefore make up for a large part of the major loss of production during the first period after a stoppage. But it should be said that it is ongoing maintenance that sustains our productivity and profitability in the long run.

“Moreover, smart ongoing maintenance is the key to success with a stoppage of this magnitude,” says Håkan Hermansson.

“Planning is very important and maintenance work done during day-to-day operations must be of the highest quality. It makes everything easier and more efficient during the actual stoppage. We carry out a mix of preventive maintenance, where we service and replace things before something breaks down, and remedial maintenance when something is actually broken. There is a kind of nirvana that we strive for, where we get a good balance between the two worlds.”

Productivity and profitability is one of the focus areas of Underhåll, the Swedish Maintenance Fair, which takes place on 10-13 March 2020 at the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre, Gothenburg. Håkan Hermansson will participate as one of the speakers on Wednesday, 11 March. He will then tell us more about the challenges of the audit stoppage and what it takes to succeed with an overhaul of this magnitude. You can find more information about Underhåll, the Swedish Maintenance Fair and its programme here 

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The maintenance audit in numbers:
+2,000,000 SEK total audit stoppage cost
345,000 cups of coffee are consumed
3,000 tonnes of scaffolding are erected
2,400 people work on the audit
67 days duration for the stoppage

Håkan Hermansson’s five critical success factors for a major scheduled stoppage:
1. Safety. “It’s really crucial, going above and beyond anything else. No one should get hurt doing his job. When we restart after the stoppage everything must be properly secured. If we have worked safely, we will get quality and a smooth start into the bargain. ”
2. Planning and preparation. “Everything depends on doing the right preparatory work. Without it, too much is left to chance.”
3. Attention to detail. “As they say, that’s where the devil is. You have to keep track of all the small details, otherwise that is where things go wrong.”
4. Building the organisation. “Get the right squad together to do the job. There are 300 of us at Preem who lead the work and drive the maintenance stoppage forward. Working together is a must.”
5. Communication and information. “We all have different backgrounds and perspectives. In order to get the most out of each other, there must be room for dialogue and information exchange.”