Working in the oil and gas industry, we see new plants designed and engineered with great levels of complexity and precision. Though the complexity may result in difficulties during pre-commissioning, it’s ultimately done to optimize plant efficiency, increase optimal production levels, and reduce plant construction costs. As experts in the industry, project owners and EPC firms bring B&W Energy Services on to execute the pre-commissioning cleaning for said projects. But, we often find that the complex engineering and design of these facilities leave little access for necessary cleaning work.
B&W is known in the industry for our unrivaled ability to effectively clean piping systems for any project. Though we bring the most advanced technology, methods and equipment there are, we can’t execute cleaning services on systems our team is unable to reach. There is no way around it. In these situations, our engineering team designs a cleaning program specific to the problem at hand, identifying new access points to the newly constructed piping. This gives our cleaning team the access needed to successfully execute the cleaning.
Though our team creates a solution, if that solution is engaged once the project is already well into construction, it can cost projects more time and money than EPCs want to imagine. Throughout our tenure, we’ve experienced projects that lack the pre-engineering necessary for cleaning, resulting in millions of dollars of unexpected cost as well as weeks of delay–ultimately knocking projects off the set schedule and budget.
Our solution?
Involve B&W Energy Services from the beginning. We have experience working with some of the world’s largest and most complex projects for EPCs and owners seeking value from their pre-commissioning and commissioning cleaning partner. For example, we have extensive experience working alongside Shell and Bechtel on multiple projects, including on the Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Project which we initially started engineering years in advance of site execution. By bringing in B&W early on projects, they understand and witness firsthand the value of involving our world-class engineering team from the planning stages.
We are currently working with Shell and Bechtel to finalize steam blow engineering plans for the project, which will lead to a well-planned execution of these services next year. Because we are involved from the beginning, the plant was designed and built with pre-commissioning cleaning in mind. This will result in project execution with no delays and zero cost overruns from additional construction changes for system cleaning–existing as the ideal situation for EPCs, project owners and B&W Energy Services.