Organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the SPE Applied Technology Workshop, entitled “Innovative Maintenance Strategies through New Technologies and Best Practices”, will take place 19–20 April at the Mövenpick Hotel and Resort, Al Bida'a, Salmiya, Kuwait. The event is aimed to be the ideal 2011 platform for underpinning the right mix of preventive, predictive and corrective maintenance for oil and gas industry in the region.

The advent of reliability engineering tools coupled with advances in condition monitoring automation, and the explosion in IT solutions have changed the paradigm of maintenance technology; therefore, more than 60 industry professionals will join this focused workshop to discuss the revolutionary transformation and latest trends in maintenance technology. Throughout its highly interactive, four-session technical programme, the workshop will cover current projects, facilities and construction topics in the oil and gas industry, including maintenance philosophies, policies and regulatory compliances, integration of AIM systems and reliability tools, turnaround planning, execution best practices, integrity and maintenance of off-sites for “total process” reliability.

Shaker Faras, KOC said: “Being an Operation Manager with KOC with almost 30 years experience in the field of up-stream facilities maintenance, I consider this workshop extremely vital, to promote and implement modern day maintenance strategies, which are optimising the operating economies. This event will also pertain to other important topics such as meeting environmental compliance through the methodologies of failure control and mitigation and increasing reliability and availability and risk reduction. Anyone seeking permanent deviation, from frequent breakdowns and downtime should attend this workshop”.

Engineers, managers and directors involved in production, operations, maintenance reliability, maintenance contracting, QA/QC, supply chain, design, corrosion and materials, fire and HSE, and assets from around the globe will be attending this two-day workshop of informal discussions and selected keynote presentations.

Hussain Al Ansari, BAPCO said: “Maintenance strategies have evolved over the past five decades; from breakdown, time-based maintenance, turnaround and inspection, to today’s innovative ways of prolonged plant cycle time between shutdowns, high level of availability and reliability of equipment and plant in the industry. Many factors have played roles in this paradigm shift in the maintenance philosophy such as advanced technologies, powerful planning tools and numerous best practices coupled with the concept of asset management in which reliability and availability are embedded in plant and equipment at the design stage. This workshop addresses all the above issues and ensures that every participant will at least gain one new idea which could be implemented in his or her organisation”.

Tags: The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)