GE Energy’s optimization and control business successfully completed a critical optimization and diagnostic system upgrade at the largest petrochemical plant in Kuwait, owned by EQUATE Petrochemical Company.
The scope of the project included the design, engineering, supply and commissioning of GE Energy’s Bently Nevada™ 3500 hardware with System 1® asset management software, which replaced 1,800 transmitters and the existing software at EQUATE’s ethylene unit.
“EQUATE had decided to re-start the plant only after the System 1 software had gone live, which enabled the recording of transient start-up data from the critical machines. EQUATE then identified and fixed three critical issues utilizing the new system, thereby avoiding plant shutdown at a later date with a potential loss of one week,” said Abdullah Taibah, Region Executive & General Manager - Middle East, GE Energy.
“We are excited by the accelerated pace of development in Kuwait. GE Energy’s involvement in the upgrade of the EQUATE plant is in synergy with Kuwait’s plans to significantly strengthen its petrochemical sector through multi-billion dollar investments over the next few years,” added Taibah. “The upgrades aim to increase safety and reliability at the oilfields – a critical factor in boosting efficiency and productivity levels.”
EQUATE also shared its success story at GE Energy’s Bently Nevada Users Conference held recently in Dubai with a paper titled, “System 1 Pay Off from Day One.”
Commissioned in 1997, EQUATE Petrochemical Company is the largest petrochemical plant in Kuwait. The plant comprises five units dedicated to producing polyethylene and ethylene glycol to markets in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. EQUATE serves the rapidly-expanding global demand for value-added plastics and chemicals of the highest quality.
As part of GE Energy’s optimization and control business, Bently Nevada asset conditioning monitoring hardware and software products assess and ensure the mechanical and thermodynamic health of industrial equipment in virtually all industries. With an operation center in Minden, Neveda, US, GE Energy’s Optimization and Control has its regional headquarters in Bahrain. There are regional sales and service offices in Khobar, Saudi Arabia; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and Doha, Qatar. Globally, sales and service offices in the principal industrial centers of more than 40 countries serve a broad base of more than 25,000 global customers.
About GE Energy:
GE Energy (www.ge.com/energy) is one of the world’s leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies, with 2005 revenue of US$16.5 billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE Energy works in all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; and other alternative fuels. Numerous GE Energy products are certified under ecomagination, GE’s corporate-wide initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that will help customers meet pressing environmental challenges.
