According to IBM, with its knowledge management tool, StatoilHydro will be able to manage planned shutdowns up to a year in advance, preventing additional losses and increased expenses. Planning and preparation for a shutdown begins 14 months ahead of scheduled maintenance. StatoilHydro is expected to evaluate potential areas for improvement well in advance against a standardized set of key performance indicators.
IBM said that StatoilHydro R&D together with the company’s global industry experts and the IBM Norwegian Center of Excellence for Oil and Gas in Stavanger, Norway developed the shutdown system. Running on IBM WebSphere, the software-oriented architecture enabled system is based on open standards and may be offered to other industries in the future.
Tom Thorstensen, project manager at StatoilHydro, said: “Much of the production losses on the Norwegian Continental Shelf come from shutdowns. We believe this service developed in partnership with IBM will be effective and will help save costs.”
StatoilHydro is an integrated international energy company primarily focused on upstream oil and gas operations. Headquartered in Norway, the company claims to deliver long-term growth and continue to develop technologies and manage projects that will meet the world’s energy and climate challenges in a sustainable way.
