Capital Equipment News April 2016

BABCOCK LIFTING THE LOAD for Sasol One shutdown

B abcock, a trusted and leading suppli- er of plant and engineering support services to the energy, process, min- ing and construction industries in Africa, provided 50 cranes for hire and delivered support services for what was the biggest plant shutdown to date for Sasolburg Op- erations’ Sasol One Site. The annual shut- down, which commenced at the end of February and lasted until mid-April 2016, was in line with a statutory requirement for petrochemical industries across the globe to shut down equipment for inspection and repair according to a pre-planned sched- ule. During the shutdown, equipment was overhauled to ensure both process and equipment integrity. Sasolburg Operations produces ammo- nia, ammonium nitrate, catalyst, ethylene, mining chemicals, phenolics, solvents, wax and also utilities and electricity genera- tion across 18 production units including a cobalt catalyst manufacturing plant, an ethylene purification unit, butanol and ac- rylates plants, and a gas-fired power plant. On the Sasol One Site production was largely suspended for the duration of the shutdown while over 27 000 maintenance tasks took place requiring 50 cranes, 100 rigging teams and over 3 300 addition- al people on site, from general workers, welders, boilermakers, pipe fitters and me- chanical fitters to electricians, engineers, surveyors, safety personnel, project man- agers and finance managers. Babcock will be provided a range of cranes with capac- ities of between 8 and 500 tonnes which were utilised in all the rigging activities. Other maintenance tasks that took place during the shutdown include engineering, manufacturing, sandblasting, painting, cut- ting and welding, X-ray, lifting, excavation, rigging and civils activities. Babcock has been providing plant hire and support services for Sasol’s shutdowns for the past 20 years, says Johan Coetzee, Area Manager at Babcock’s Plant Services business. “We supply cranes and construc- tion equipment directly to Sasol, as well as other local and international service providers involved in the Sasol shutdowns, for both the Secunda and Sasolburg oper- ations. We were awarded the maintenance contract at Sasol One in Sasolburg, and our scope of work has extended to all Sasol divisions including Sasol Mining and Sasol Group Technology.”

“All equipment is serviced, certified and inspected to be up to standard and ready to work. All personnel are competent, qualified, appointed and trained on what we need them to do. Toolbox talks, daily, weekly and monthly meetings, with clear communication and feedback, keep every- one who is involved adequately informed. All potential deviations are noted, and an action plan, with a responsible persons list, and task due dates, is formulated to pre- vent delays. We work closely with Sasol so that we know exactly when and what ser- vice is required, to ensure that we deliver on time,” concludes Coetzee.

Co-ordinating a project on this scale re- quires months of planning, says Coetzee. “Our Plant Services MD, Ian Kendrick, is involved from the start and we have nu- merous strategy meetings with Sasol to ensure we have all the information about the what, where, how and when we need to do the task. We allocate personnel, equip- ment and resources to the job and draw on personnel and skills from within our plant division and from our other branches and divisions if required. We move equipment into place, and we focus on safety, ensur- ing clear communication and planning ev- ery step of the way.

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS APRIL 2016 18