HART Communication Helps Shell Improve Nigerian Operations
PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
- Improve on plant operation to increase throughput
- Improve maintenance efficiency
SOLUTION:
- HART devices and communications installed across the plant’s field instrumentation and control networks for real-time process monitoring
- Use of remote HART communications for maintenance activities
RESULTS:
- Remote access to hard-to-reach places reduces the time and cost of trips to field devices
- Shortens time for instrument installation and configuration in half…or better
- Improves plant operations and maintenance through greater data visibility
HART Communication has sped instrument installations as well as maintenance jobs for Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria, for improvements to operations and maintenance in the Soku Gas Plant located in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria, needed to “improve on plant operation and maintenance and to increase throughput,” says Awe Kayode, leader of the effort to bring HART technology benefits to the company’s Soku Gas Plant.
The Solution
Devices equipped with HART-compliant communications were installed across the plant’s field instrumentation and control networks for real-time process monitoring. Additionally, remote HART communication devices are used for preventive maintenance and first-line maintenance jobs.
This enabled instrumentation to be accessed in hard-to-reach areas such as the plant’s glycol regeneration skids where technicians would otherwise climb ladders. Kayode explains that HART technology has helped the maintenance staff comply with its goals, which has had a “direct impact in keeping our plant running.”
Benefits and Outcomes
The use of HART technology “has greatly reduced set-up and configuration time of field devices,” Kayode says, citing the installation of new transmitters at the Soku plant’s Enhanced Gas Gathering System: “The configuration time was initially scheduled for seven days, but was completed in three days.”
Additionally, remote communications access has “greatly reduced” trips to the field. Instead of climbing ladders to access instruments on a glycol regeneration skid, HART technology speeds access while reducing time, cost and risk.
Kayode adds that plant work processes and operations have been “greatly improved” through the better data visibility the HART Protocol provides, which he sums up as “knowing the status of field devices and be able to be proactive in their maintenance.”