Chevron Nigeria Limited: Datastream Keeps Multi-Site Facility Pumping

Chevron Overseas Petroleum Inc., Escravos facility, Nigeria

Chevron Overseas Petroleum Inc. (COPI) directs Chevron's extensive international oil and natural gas exploration and production operations outside North America. The company has operations in such diverse and challenging environments as Kazakhstan, the North Sea, offshore Western Australia, Africa and the South Pacific. Headquartered in San Ramon, California, USA, COPI produces 27.4 million metric tons of crude oil and oil equivalents per-year worldwide.

In an agreement with the Nigerian Government, COPI established Chevron Nigeria Limited, Escravos Base—an innovative facility consisting of offshore platforms, a refinery, and a tank farm. Currently, Escravos produces 400,000 barrels of oil a day. The long-term economic benefits of this project could redefine the region. Chevron hopes to expand Escravos' production and use natural gas—a by-product of oil production—to power environmentally-friendly electricity plants in Benin, Ghana, and Togo.

The Challenge of a Multi-Site Facility
Like any oil facility, the Escravos facility is a maze of pumps, filters, and pipes. Platforms located 12-16 miles (19-26 kilometers) offshore extract crude from the sea bed and send it to onshore tank farms via a networked pipeline.

Mike Vizina, Chevron's maintenance superintendent at Escravos, was assigned to the Nigerian plant from Cabinda, Angola. Having installed an asset management system in Angola, Vizina knew that the Escravos terminal needed a similar program if there was any chance of taking control of the maintenance effort. He contracted Carl Hughes to implement an asset management software system at Escravos.

"We have 300 to 400 work orders each day for about eight different maintenance groups," explains Hughes, CMMS administrator contracted to Chevron Nigeria Limited. "We have over 300 people responsible for the maintenance. The only way to keep up with that—and keep up with it correctly—is a computerized maintenance and asset management system."

Vizina, Hughes and their colleagues knew any asset management system they chose would have to expand to encompass literally millions of assets and a growing labor force. At full capacity, the facility will include 12 offshore platforms and an estimated 4-million pieces of equipment.

"Chevron was searching for something that would control our maintenance program and our inventory," Hughes says. "The people involved at that time were doing things on a 'fire-fighting' basis only."

"We wanted something to help us control people, inventory, and cost. We wanted the history of equipment. We wanted to find out if the equipment was efficient or not efficient, and the only way to do all of that is with some substantial database, which we didn't have."

The Power of a Datastream Solution
After a thorough evaluation of many products, Chevron Nigeria Limited decided on Datastream software for its asset management needs.

"We were looking for something that would grow with us and that had no limits on the amount of equipment it could track," Hughes says. "Datastream had the most flexible system on the market. We went around to all the competitors, and the more we researched it, the more we came back to Datastream."

Datastream software tracks almost every facet of Escravos' maintenance processes, including labor hours, response time, and spare parts used. That data is then used to establish trends and reports, outlining the maintenance department's efficiency and effectiveness.

The Results
Within months of implementation, Hughes began to see results from the Datastream solution. Reports on labor costs showed certain "bottlenecks" in the maintenance processes.

"Soon after we got Datastream online, we realized that we spent over $200,000 a month in lost labor time while our maintenance workers were waiting for the helicopter to take them to the offshore platforms or waiting on parts," Hughes says. "We had something tangible that told us we were wasting too much time because the guys couldn't get out to the platform to carry out the work orders."

Such performance data is valuable, according to Hughes, because it gives "hard proof" of inefficiencies. Without this information, maintenance professionals are left without proper documentation.

"If I go to my manager and say, 'I don't have enough people for this job,' the first thing he will say is, 'Are you managing your people wrong?' Now, I can walk in and say, 'Datastream's database told me that my mechanics are needed for 450 hours next week. I only have 120 available hours.' Management can't deny that," explains Hughes.

"Without this data, you cannot make management decisions that easily. Datastream asset management software is like a big string around your finger. It just reminds you to do things. It shows you in report form a lot of the problem areas that cost you money and time."

Beyond the cost-savings associated with Datastream, Hughes notes that the software helped safety procedures at the Escravos plant. The database is filled with information about correct maintenance procedures, and any maintenance worker has easy access to that data through a network of terminals.

"A lot of times, mechanics come back to tell me they researched a piece of equipment using Datastream software and totally changed their minds on what their approach should be—and gladly so. What they thought they were going to do would cause a big problem. They looked at the equipment history and found a safer way to do their job."