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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS APRIL 2016 18
Babcock, 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.”
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.
“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.
BABCOCK LIFTING THE LOAD
for Sasol One shutdown