March 1, 2010

Oilsands construction

New engineering association forms in Fort McMurray, Alberta

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

The newest chapter of a national association for plant and facility maintenance has been established in Fort McMurray, Alberta, to meet the needs of the oil and gas industry in the region.

The Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada (PEMAC) held its inaugural meeting last month, which was attended by more than 80 general managers, directors and maintenance management practitioners. The response was overwhelming, so participants were selected through invitation.

“At the meeting we launched the chapter, presented the board of governors, the vision and mission of the organization,” said chapter president Amin Elsherif, who is a reliability engineering director at Suncor.

The association aims to provide education, certification and networking, as well as a chance to share best practices.

“Maintenance management is actually health care for physical assets and equipment,” said PEMAC executive director Norman Clegg.

“Facilities in the resource and processing industry and the human body run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for a very long period of time. The human body and physical assets also breakdown.”

It is critical that facilities are monitored, so they can run according to plan.

“All original construction, which includes installing equipment and putting it together, is done by trades people,” explained Clegg.

“The people who do maintenance work, which involves taking equipment apart and putting it back together, are also trades people.”

Clegg said these people need to be trained to understand the business they are working in.

This means when a piece of equipment or a facility is built or installed, they need to know if it is operating in the way it was designed to.

“If you measure what is going on, you can plan for repairs, instead of waiting for a breakdown.”

PEMAC recognizes that it is important for maintenance people to have certification in both a trade and the management of physical assets.

“One of the major success factors of oilsands business relies heavily on a well developed design and construction that will allow for a smooth maintenance and operations,” said Elsherif.

“It is very important to build plants and facilities with both operations and maintenance in mind. Plants and facilities are built to reach strategic capacities and to meet the production goals.”

Elsherif said maintenance management is an integrated cycle and one of the most important elements of the cycle is the link between construction and operations.

“After the construction of new plants, maintenance management takes over with the aim to maximize the lifetime of the facilities and in many situations results in continued construction demands to change, modify or add parts to the facilities”

Reliability engineering aims to develop the right equipment maintenance strategy that will preserve the integrity of the assets.

“When construction is completed, the facility is handed over to operations where commissioning and start up activities are very essential,” said Elsherif.

“Reliability engineering plays an important role in the handover activities, which include performance tests to make sure that the equipment meets the design parameters.”

Other elements that contribute to the maintenance management cycle include planning, scheduling, turnarounds, supply chain, finance, human resource and health and safety.

The main strength of the PEMAC organization is not only the focus on the details of each segment, but also on the integration between all these practitioners.

The new chapter will provide input and oversight of the PEMAC Maintenance Management Professional program that is offered through Keyano College.

The program consists of eight modules and is designed for individuals aspiring to management positions in the maintenance field or those already in maintenance management, who are looking for formal training and designation.

The two year course is also offered in Burnaby, British Columbia at the B.C. Institute of Technology and in Prince George at the College of New Caledonia.

The new association is hosting its main networking event, Main Train 2010 Conference in Fort McMurray in September.

The event will follow the local Oil Sands Trade show.

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