Publications

The Nilam and Lempake gas fields in East Kalimantan both produce an average of 87.7 MMSCFD natural gas. The operation of those fields is supported by several gas compressors, including C-5740, a 25MMSCF capacity compressor running without a backup compressor. As critical equipment, the compressor contributes about 10% of the Nilam and Lempake fields’ gas production. Problems with this compressor lead to unplanned downtime and production loss. The Field Maintenance and Maintenance Engineering teams are trying to increase the reliability of this compressor. The current maintenance strategy is based on the manufacturer’s manual with improvements based on the Field Maintenance Team’s experience or the Maintenance Engineering Team’s analysis. The contribution of the operator as the day-to-day monitoring person is not fully utilized. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) analysis is becoming a powerful tool to combine all resources systematically to produce a new Preventive Maintenance (Service) job plan, a Predictive Maintenance (Condition Monitoring) job plan, and a Daily Operator checklist (Autonomous Maintenance). More challenges arise when dealing with the lack of reliable data, such as failure rates in the Computerized Maintenance Management System. Reliability references and expert judgments then become key inputs in producing a qualified RCM analysis. We also need to include the knowledge and experience of Field Maintenance and Maintenance Engineering teams. Therefore, various “types” of RCM workshops need to be implemented. However, the biggest challenge in this project is to convince the Operation Team to implement the results because the analysis indicates the operator needs to undertake extensive works. This paper will briefly cover the process and results of the RCM analysis for the C-5740 gas compressor unit in Satellite#04, Nilam field. The process consists of a comprehensive preparation stage, a RCM Analysis as the first phase (FMEA), a RCM Analysis as the second phase (Simulation and Task Selection), and a Verification and Finalization phase. Furthermore, this paper will share the lessons learned during all four stages, the strategy to solve the challenges during the RCM process, and the end result of the maintenance package produced. As a pilot project in this field, this paper shows new experiences that can be applied in the next RCM project.