With aging equipment, unpredictable weather, rising equipment costs, and an unpredictable market, unplanned refinery outages are at an all-time high. Refinery reliability issues have also recently impacted product prices; this creates both challenges and opportunities for refiners in a business where reliability fundamentals remain critical to capturing market opportunities.

Outages as an Opportunity

As the wider industry continues to struggle with unplanned outages, savvy organisations are seeing this as an opportunity to invest in improving plant reliability to capture market value.

Major external events often lead to sudden spikes in product prices. For example, winter storm Uri understandably caused refinery outages across the U.S. from December 2021 to January 2022. It was, however, what happened in the wake of storm Uri that highlighted how these major events can also often mask underlying reliability issues. In the summer of 2023, product prices increased despite no major weather events, highlighting reliability-related production losses at several North American refineries.

Markets responded swiftly to these outages, resulting in a significant increase in peak margins. Figures suggest that reliability-related lost profit opportunities can range from $20 million to $50 million per year for mid-size refineries. A conservative estimate indicates that value from market uplift during these outages for a 200-kilo barrel per day refiner on the US Gulf Coast could be between $6 million and $12 million in a single month.

These figures highlight the importance of improving reliability performance and the extra profit this can yield for commercially astute refiners. To stay ahead of the competition, many organisations are now turning to digital tools to revamp fundamental plant processes and drive further improvements in their processes.

How can Technology Help?

Building and maintaining a best-in-class reliability program is challenging. Effective reliability processes must be embedded in equipment design and maintenance practices and require consistent execution over time. Industrial technology currently on the market such as IAMTech's software solutions: iPlanSTO and iPlanMAINTAIN, support these processes by providing robust asset management and maintenance execution tools.

Augmenting a solid reliability program with digital solutions can help refiners improve efficiency and sustainability. iPlanSTO, turnaround planning software, supports effective shutdowns, turnarounds, and outages (STO) by providing comprehensive planning, scheduling, and execution tools. The software employs advanced algorithms to simulate scenarios, anticipate bottlenecks, and adjust schedules, enhancing overall STO efficiency.

iPlanMaintain software integrates with your existing ERP system allowing you to scope, plan, estimate, sign, approve, schedule, capture progress, time recording, and monitor identified maintenance key performance indicators (KPIs) on user friendly dashboards.

An iPlan for Four Fundamentals of Reliability

1. Asset Strategies: Determining the appropriate maintenance strategy for all assets is essential. IAMTech’s software aids in the management of routine maintenance with a proven industry workflow, enhancing efficiency and safety.
2. Asset Health and Monitoring: Capturing high-quality reliability data is paramount. IAMTech's iPlanMaintain retains all historical event data and allows for condition-based monitoring, which improves maintenance planning and execution.
3. Reliable Operations: Operators can set and adhere to reliable operating windows, monitor equipment, and conduct operator rounds using IAMTech’s digital solutions, ensuring operational consistency and early identification of abnormal conditions.
4. Maintenance Execution: High-quality maintenance execution is critical. IAMTech’s mobile applications, such as iPlanMobile, enable on-site progress tracking even without internet connectivity, ensuring real-time data capture and efficient execution.

Other software, such as electronic permit-to-work systems, like IAMPermit, enhance safety compliance by digitising permit processes, reducing administrative overhead, and ensuring real-time access to critical safety information. This shift from paper-based to digital systems not only improves compliance but also contributes to significant cost savings and operational efficiency.

IAMTech’s software solutions can not only help with your asset uptime but deliver efficiency savings on repeat tasks – you can save 8/10 of the costs associated with planning a work order for a piece of equipment you have previously serviced.

Conclusion

In the face of ongoing reliability challenges, doubling down on refinery reliability through robust fundamentals and advanced digital tools like those offered by IAMTech can provide refiners with a competitive edge. By leveraging innovative solutions, refiners can enhance asset management, improve maintenance execution, and ultimately capture greater market value.

For more insights on IAMTech’s technology and its applications in industrial asset management, you can visit their official website​