May 2016

Do not accept that what the OEM delivered, or how the equipment has been configured for the past 30 years, must be maintained into the future. Optimize yourPM program and look for maintainability improvements to ensure that the right work can be performed in the right way and at the right time.

Carbon steel (CS) piping and equipment are used extensively in refineries and petrochemical plants, where fluid temperatures vary from moderate to high for various processes.

The primary cause for losses and lost opportunities at refineries, chemical complexes, pipeline networks and gas processing facilities is equipment failures.

Since the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s, the US government has restricted the export of crude oil to curb dependence on crude oil imports.

A refinery process fired heater system consists of multiple sub-units, of which the fired heater is the most critical, as it impacts the overall efficiency of the system.

In Part 1 of this article, published in April, the barriers of petrochemical production in India were discussed, along with the opportunity to explore chemicals from coal, using the specific example of polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

A promising route to obtain bio-gasoil (bioGO) or hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is the catalytic coprocessing of vegetable oil with diesel oil in a conventional hydrotreating unit.

The last thing you need right now is another dreary recitation of industry statistics that show how hard hit the global oil and gas industry has been in the last 18 months.

The number of scheduled refinery turnarounds in North America is anticipated to rise this year after declining sharply in 2015, as refiners delayed maintenance shutdowns to capitalize on abundant quantities of low-priced feedstock.

A number of US oil refineries have recently asked the question, “When should an equipment repair be classified as rework?”

Several noteworthy presentations were given at ARC's 20th Annual ARC Industry Forum in Orlando, Florida in February.

Much of the global petrochemical industry is built around the abundant oil and gas reserves of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

Most machines and pressure vessels are designed with safety in mind, but they can release large amounts of energy if not constructed, maintained or operated correctly.

Over the past year, strong gasoline demand, particularly in the US, has been the saving grace for much of the downstream industry.

Part 1 of this series provided an overview on the present state of the petrochemical industry, a breakdown on construction project numbers by region, as well as major trends in Africa, the Middle East and the US. Part 2 examines the landscape in Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe and Latin America.

US refinery margins recovered as product markets were supported by strong domestic gasoline demand and temporarily tight sentiment fueled by the switch to summer-grade gasoline.

According to Hydrocarbon Processing’s Construction Boxscore Database, nearly 300 new downstream projects have been announced around the globe over the past year.

Planned shutdowns, turnarounds and outages (STOs) are often scheduled for preventive maintenance and new equipment installation that must be performed to keep a plant running and in regulatory compliance.

Elliott Group has made changes to its executive team. Michael Lordi has been named as chief operating officer (COO), succeeding Art Titus, who is retiring after nine years.