The upstream international and upstream Americas businesses of one of the largest oil and gas producers are involved in energy exploration and production. To support the business and operational processes, and maximize asset availability at optimal cost, MaxGrip helped to set up the Maintenance, Reliability and Turnarounds (MRTA) Tools & Data Program.
The upstream businesses search for and recover crude oil and natural gas. They liquefy and transport gas, and operate the upstream and midstream delivery infrastructure. The producer invests in innovative energy technology to unlock new resources and prolong the lifespan of mature basins around the world. The MRTA Tools & Data Program aims to improve business results and maintenance measures through SAP and its connected portfolios for maintenance execution, integrity assurance, reliability and turnaround workstreams.
The program started in 2013 and is set to make significant contributions to operational excellence. “Since a Maintenance and Integrity Execution Program was established in 2007, almost all upstream assets are well on their way to achieve the highest levels of maintenance maturity and asset integrity”, says MaxGrip expert Rowena Hiew. “However, there are many other factors affecting performance improvement, such as integrated materials management and logistics. In today’s business environment, it is more important than ever to reduce production deferment and costs.”
Increasing uptime at decreasing costs is a tall order for many oil and gas operators. Getting the most out of the EAM system is often the best way forward. MaxGrip has been working with this producer for over ten years and is a preferred partner on maintenance and integrity services. With our expertise on both SAP and preventive maintenance, we have the capabilities, as well as the business knowledge and experience working with the program team, to deliver the right tools and data solutions.
From our first involvement in 2012 onward, setting up the MRTA Tools & Data Program included the involvement of various stakeholder groups of the producer from both business and IT organisations. “We connected with experts from al over the global community of the producer to gather the right information and identify the requirements for new solutions or appropriate changes. This process covered everything from equipment reliability to maintenance measures and data management. Due to our deep understanding of the underlying APM business processes, we speak the same language and are able to challenge the producer’s experts when required. In this manner, we were able to piece together the IT architecture and the necessary functional adaptations.”
The solutions are custom enhancements to SAP, each of them targeted at more efficient support of business processes. “We improved the flexibility and user-friendliness by introducing SAP Business Objects as the user interface. Improving the global upstream MRTA KPIs and measures involved the updating of definitions, creating new KPIs and measures, and removing those that did not add value. The delivery process includes testing of the system, training different users, and managing the go-live. The program is expected to continue until 2016, with the next phase still to be planned. The upstream business, already operating at world class level, now has the means to perform even more effectively.”
