Maintenance gets cracking

The maintenance plan for the Scotford Upgrader, part of Alberta's legendary Athabasca Oil Sands project that resulted in unexpected breakdown provided an opportunity to do as much turnaround work as possible. Shell Canada, one of three partners involved in the Athabasca Oil Sands project immediately launched a maintenance turnaround that was originally scheduled for the spring of the year 2005. The result of being able to turn this breakdown into an opportunity was that the net loss of production due to the pump failure, although off schedule timing-wise, was zero. The turnaround was completed in 39 days, six less than on the planning schedule.