Let’s get down to brass tax. Your terminal will always cost you money, but it’s not how much you spend, it’s what you spend your terminal budget on that will return results. The trick is to manage your OpEx and CapEx in a strategic way that you are investing in the intrinsic value of your offshore terminal and not the support costs. In this blog, we discuss your terminal investment and how you can make your money work for you with an OpEx strategy that spends money in the right place: Operational Integrity Management. 

Assessment of Operational Integrity and current OpEx

The first step is to ascertain a client’s current operational efficiency and Asset Integrity, Reliability and Availability (IRA). This process should be based on a proven, phased methodology that offers measurable data. The goal of such an integrity assessment is to reveal areas in need of optimization and to help you measure success and predict failure.

We conduct the experience-based assessment from a rigorous Operational Engineering position by utilising:

• A quantitative evaluation of existing terminal assets, operations and environment
• An independent, objective and qualitative appraisal by way of a detailed report and workshop
• An established and well-defined roadmap for improvement based on the integrity management program

This involves identifying the categories and impending improvements associated with design, assets, operations, environment and the client’s desire to innovate and the risk appetite implied. Gathering historical asset performance data, operational parameters and site-specific environmental conditions, we are able to create an optimal Operational Integrity Management solution that is custom-designed for the terminal from an operational engineering perspective specific to the client’s unique operating environment and OpEx budget with the endorsement and support of the OEM and Alliance Partners. 

Introduction of Operational Integrity Management

Given the completion of analysis, a design is developed and tailor-made for the terminal and OpEx budget at hand. This design aims to maintain an asset in a fit for service condition while aiding the quantification of the remaining useful life consistent with the applicable standards. 

MARSOL’s Operational Integrity Management focuses on a holistic system based on data acquisition coupled with over 50 years of experience attained through our long term offshore terminal expertise in preservation, commissioning & planned maintenance system (PMS) programs. This means that our team of expert engineers benchmark the existing terminal activities against industry best practices before developing and implementing the optimal custom Operational Integrity Management solution.

Any changes that are introduced into the terminal, whether mechanical or operational must be performed in the most dependable, safe, and cost-effective manner to achieve sustainability. With this in mind, the design and introduction of Operational Integrity Management will lower risk, the likelihood of failure and the consequence of failure, keeping the risk to the people, environment, asset, and company. as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP).

The Operational Integrity Management Roadmap

Implementing an Operational Integrity Management plan with sustainability in mind means considering OpEx in balance with risk. For this, you need a good O&M strategy that ascertains the asset and operations’ areas of development. With all the data laid out and interpreted by our consultants, the client can make informed decisions by quantifying the financial, functional, and environmental and risk parameters.

With many stakeholders, such as operators, owners, local communities and insurers, it is vital that the entire facility’s environment and operational integrity be understood.

Operational integrity is our basis to provide extended services to cover life prediction and life extension programs. Especially with today’s ageing infrastructure and the low price of oil, this has become more and more relevant in the current market

Conclusion

MARSOL’s strategic approach to Operational Integrity Management ensures the facility’s integrity without compromise, while optimising both capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX). It directs the client spend towards maintaining the intrinsic value of the asset instead of external support costs and aims to lower risk while baring sustainability in mind.

Is your offshore terminal costing you more than it should? Let’s talk about OpEx and Operational Integrity Management.