Condition Monitoring Curtails Costly Downtime to Drive Profitability in Oil and Gas

Monday, June 3, 2019 by Parker United Kingdom Team

In Oil and Gas, Condition Monitoring Curtails Costly Downtime to Drive Profitability The global oil and gas industry is a highly competitive market in which companies must be willing to adopt cutting-edge technologies to get the most out of oil reserves, keep their operations running smoothly and maintain an advantage over the competition.

Depending on the segment of the market in which they operate, oil and gas companies control assets ranging from drilling rigs, offshore platforms, and wells in the upstream segment, to pipelines, LNG terminals and refineries in the midstream and downstream segments.

The process of designing, building, operating and maintaining these assets comes with a large capital expenditure, and realizing a valuable return on that investment is more critical than ever in the current downturn impacting the oil and gas industry. One key to doing so is to minimize non-productive time (NPT).

Any time during which a site such as a drilling rig, production plant or refinery is not operating at full capacity is classified as NPT. It is often measured by the percentage of days throughout the year during which operations cannot proceed as planned, and accounts for a large percentage of operating costs for many oil and gas projects.

While in the past technicians have largely maintained a “fix it when it breaks” mentality, that approach has been replaced as the cost of NPT has become better understood and monitored. Today the components and systems found on equipment at drill sites are not only tracked electronically, but every effort is made to analyze their status to better predict and avoid NPT.

In Oil and Gas, Condition Monitoring Curtails Costly Downtime to Drive Profitability With decades of experience in working to address the NPT challenge, Parker has developed the ATEX Metallic Wear Debris Sensor, ATEX Moisture Sensor, I count Bottle Sampler and many other products designed to closely monitor the condition of components and systems on oil and gas equipment. By doing so, these solutions facilitate rapid and informed decision making which helps to keep equipment running efficiently and for longer.

Parker experts are also available to support customers in creating and implementing their condition monitoring program, offering a unique blend of technical expertise and market knowledge that makes Parker a valuable partner to oil and gas customers aiming to maximize productivity and profitability.

Implementing a condition monitoring program improves asset uptime, extends asset life and, perhaps most importantly, improves safety by preventing potentially dangerous conditions when equipment fails. No matter how remote the location or demanding the environment, we can provide a condition monitoring system to effectively minimize risk and increase uptime.

In oil and gas Condition Monitoring curtails costly downtime to drive profitability - Cristiano Garau Article contributed by Cristiano Garau, lead application engineer, Parker Kittiwake, Hydraulic Filtration Division Parker Hannifin.