THE PATH TO TANK OVERHAUL COST REDUCTION

Five essential pillars to decrease maintenance costs and increase tank availability EVEN in the best of times, those who lead tank storage facilities continue to search for practical, attainable solutions for maximising availability while keeping a firm control on maintenance costs. During the unusual circumstances of 2020, with storage capacity at a premium, tank operators are making unconventional and expensive decisions to boost their capacity. Returning tanks to service, deferring scheduled maintenance, and enacting temporary fixes, push costs higher and increase risk. But what if tank operators could deploy a proven solution to reduce both outage durations and cost? This article will identify what we believe to be the essential five pillars in an effective tank overhaul approach. This has been piloted and scaled with strong effect at a major multinational oil company, where they achieved net overhaul duration reductions of 15-20% with the corresponding increase in availability, combined with a 10-20% reduction in cost. Non-quantifiable improvements in schedule predictability, repair quality and execution efficiency were also realised. PILLAR ONE: STRATEGIC...