N E W S R E L E A S E from FURMANITE AUSTRALIA
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FAP/023: M
February 2005
WMC selects Furmanite engineering services for national contract
WMC Resources, the diversified resources company, has appointed Furmanite Australia, the specialty services company geared to maximising asset uptime, to provide its wide range of engineering services at WMC sites across the country.
The three-year contract, sealed earlier this year, has been borne out of a successful relationship between the two organisations over a number of years, including an extensive range of core Furmanite services, plus engineering advice, successfully deployed to meet needs and provide valuable time and cost savings at WMC Phosphate Hill.
The full extent of Furmanite’s services are now to be rolled out to other WMC sites, including the Kwinana Nickel Refinery, the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter, Mount Keith and Leinster nickel operations in Western Australia, and Olympic Dam copper and uranium operations in South Australia, as well as Mount Isa and Phosphate Hill fertiliser plant in Queensland.
Furmanite offers a range of high value on-line and on-site services and technologies geared to helping customers minimise downtime, and keep assets earning with maximum efficiency. Services covered under the contract with WMC include on-line pressure leak sealing, joint integrity management, pipeline intervention including hot tapping and pipe stoppling, on-site and off-site machining and clamp fabrication, composite repairs, controlled bolting and induction bolt heating, valve repair, Trevitest on-line valve testing, and shutdown management and engineering.
Furmanite national sales and marketing manager, Jim Friel, highlights the considerable advantages to operators of such long-term contracts with a single organisation that can offer a broad spread of technologies and services.
“These key contractor business partnerships deliver benefits all round,” he pointed out. “They enable the contractor to develop a close working relationship with the operator, and gain a valuable in-depth knowledge and experience of each plant across a number of sites, which builds from one year to the next. This brings considerable efficiencies and cost-effectiveness to the service provided, and moreover allows more proactive asset management to replace a less cost-effective reactive approach to maintenance, so delivering maximum value.
“Our services are primarily geared to avoiding unplanned shutdown,’ he added. “For example we’ve enabled Phosphate Hill to keep producing while we’ve sealed leaks, or conducted hot tapping or pipe stoppling services for them, for instance, representing considerable savings.”
Minimising scheduled downtime is another key element. Among projects carried out at Phosphate Hill, the removal, overhaul and reinstallation of 970 critical flanges was successfully undertaken with zero leaks reported on start-up during a scheduled outage at the plant, as part of a pressurised system integrity management service from Furmanite.
The workscope included inspecting and overhauling steam traps, and gate and globe valves, working on components in the syngas and turbine compressor and on the refrigeration skid, removing and reinstating 170 PSV valves, and inspecting all critical joints. A tagging system with all details and torque values was set up to track and control every stage of the work. Furmanite was also involved in preparation for the outage during the six months prior, comprising the bill of materials for all vessels, PSVs and exchangers in the ammonia plant.
In addition, within its contracted on-site presence at Phosphate Hill, Furmanite has also been involved in providing its services for shutdowns in various areas of the plant as well as, for example, regularly inspecting for leaks and, if found, repairing immediately to prevent it becoming a problem.
Under the new contract, Furmanite will now be able to supply a similar breadth and depth of service to all the WMC sites.
Friel adds: “By getting to know the assets and recognise needs, we’re able to undertake designated maintenance tasks quickly and efficiently, and make a proactive contribution. Moreover, by applying our specialist knowledge and skills we can provide not just a solution, but the optimum solution. This is what Furmanite’s all about – helping our customers gain maximum return from their assets.”
For further press information contact:
Sarah Manwaring-White, Keep in Touch Ltd,
Tel: +44 (0)1451 844 488 Email: sarah_mw@keepintouch.co.uk
Issued on behalf of Furmanite Australia