Qatar Petrochemical Company (QAPCO) has celebrated the successful completion of its planned general shutdown over a gathering that recognized both employees and contractors outstanding contributions.
At QAPCO, a general shutdown (GSD) is a planned event that only occurs every five to seven years and entails production being suspended for a few weeks to give technical experts the opportunity to clean process equipment, replace specific machinery and perform necessary maintenance. A planned shutdown, which is sometimes also called a turnaround, is always a strategic and critical phase for an industrial facility. It allows further long-term efficiencies and improves the overall operational performance of plants. As previously announced, QAPCO's shutdown activities were scheduled for the first half of 2014.
"With the successful completion of the planned general shutdown 2014, we should all be proud of the remarkable performance achieved in terms of scale, volume and complexity. I'm pleased to report that the key objectives of the shutdown have been met," QAPCO Vice Chairman and CEO Dr. Mohammed Youssef Al Mulla said of the shutdown.
Dr. Al Mulla added that the outcomes of the GSD align with QAPCO's sustainability ambitions. "Thanks to the GSD, we have improved our plants reliability; we will realize additional efficiency gains, reduce losses, improve our asset integrity and further optimize our environmental impact. Our facilities are now more sustainable than ever before and paving the way for a new era of growth and operational excellence." QAPCO's shutdown is a historical milestone for the company as over 3,000 activities were scheduled and effectively executed under one integrated master plan. 900 employees and more than 7,000 contractors participated in this unique project. At peak time, 7,790 people were present on site. The overall activities reached 2 million man-hours.
QAPCO's successful 2014 shutdown is the result of four years of planning and preparations, extensive resource mobilization and optimization, and communication between all the interfaces.
During the GSD, QAPCO focused in particular on its safety performance and ensured that everyone, employees and contractors, embraced QAPCO's safety culture. As such, 204 GSD safety training sessions were conducted for 10,000 participants.