Maximization of Thermal Development Through Improvement of Heat Recovery Steam Generator Integrated Availability for Heavy Oil Field – an Application of Lean Approach

Abstract Petroleum Development Oman LLC (PDO) is Oman’s premier oil producer and operates several fields at “A”. “A” East and “A” West are located on the eastern flank of the South Oman Salt Basin. “A” West Steam system is using a saturated steam generated by Once Through Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG). This unit is utilizing the exhaust heat generated by Gas Turbine (GT) to convert the water into steam. This integrated unit availability plays a key role in sustainability of supply steam for ultimate oil recovery. This has an impact of losing of steam generation (10% of steam generation annually) which is equivalent to (5% loss of oil production annually). In addition, there is allocated higher GHG emissions from GT side with respect to steam produced. By improving this process, it will help to contribute to organization goals in term of production increase, deferment reduction, GHG reduction and cost reduction. In This paper, different approaches and process had been used such as lean practice including process mapping, root cause analysis, fishbone. In addition, Energy efficiency Surveillance Tool (EEST), exception-based Surveillance Tool (EBS) and Managing Threats and Opportunities (MTO) Tool were used for this project. This paper has led to significant economic benefits of cost savings around 15%/year by increasing the unit availability and ability to produce the steam for ultimate oil recovery. Detailed value Stream Map (VSM) was built based on the As-Is process & then all possible cause identified using fishbone resulted in finding three main causes as below: 1) Delay in rectifying / attending fault instruments 2) Faulty instrument signal 3) Communication issues between GT and HRSG systems As an outcome, the Availability was improved and reached by average of 89.7% by improving the processes and minimize downtime.