Shell in on-site move
21 Sep 2006
Shell has signed up Furmanite to provide a full-time, on-site core maintenance team at its Stanlow refinery, near Ellesmere Port in Cheshire. The technical services company is to provide proactive support to Shell's own maintenance resource under the contract, which runs for up to five years.
Furmanite's service at Stanlow will cover leak sealing, on-line valve testing, on-site valve repair, in-situ machining, controlled bolting, composite repair and pipeline intervention. Another role, it said, is to help Shell to develop best practices and implement a preventive problem-solving approach.
The on-site Furmanite team will conduct regular site surveys to help catch any potential problems at an early stage. The remit further includes working with Shell to introduce on-going developments and improvements in efficiency and effectiveness over the contract period.
According to the technical service company, its on-site team will also assist with forward planning for outages, as well as integrating Furmanite's systems into Shell's own systems to optimise efficiency and minimise reliance on the refinery's resources.
The Furmanite team's integration with the Shell planning process will provide cohesion, stability and efficient utilisation of labour and resources, according to Paul Faraway, Shell commercial engineer and contract guardian.
"This is a long-term, committed relationship with safety at its heart, but it is also an arena where we can jointly explore ways of proficient working and best practice in a partnership of equals," Faraway commented.
