Petropiar Uses Operator Rounds to Improve Asset Performance and Avoid Unplanned Outages

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Petropiar, S.A., a subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., owns and operates oil and natural gas reserves in the country’s Orinoco Belt. 

Optimizing inspection management

Petropiar needed an easier way to manage the inspection of its rotating electrical and static equipment at one of its industrial complexes.

Implementing an asset performance management solution

Petropiar decided to implement Asset Performance Management (APM) from GE Digital (formerly Meridium Enterprise APM) in 2004. The company decided to address the challenge of optimizing its inspections by implementing the operator rounds capability, now found in APM Health, part of the Predix Asset Performance Management (Predix APM) solution.

The first phase of implementation included software configuration, training, and establishing functional guidelines (required routes, assets to be monitored, etc.). The new initiative was a cultural change in Petropiar’s project management principles, and represented the company’s new approach to understanding the condition of assets, improving overall asset performance, and establishing methods to improve monitoring and failure prevention.

The project included visual inspection, parameters verification, and thermography surveying, as well as training for more than 200 operating engineers, operation analysts, supervisors, and field operators. Training encompassed multiple sessions on condition-based maintenance (CBM) principles and asset health methodologies.

Robust data collection and analysis system with APM

As a result of implementing APM and the operator rounds capability, Petropiar now has a very robust data collection and analysis system to monitor and manage the health of its routing, electrical, and static assets. With the information from SAP, Petropiar engineers can analyze operating trends and identify maintenance needs before an outage occurs.

With an APM, solution, the company was able to identify several issues that affect asset performance, including:

• Damaged field gauges
• Inadequate parameters for operation monitoring
• Equipment operating out of limits
• Operator training needs

Petropiar also identified potential improvements, including:

• Improving operator skills
• Standardization of asset condition data collection
• Reduction of work notifications created
• Early detection of asset degradation mechanisms
• Reduction of maintenance costs
• Integration of operations, process, and maintenance departments