Getting your LNG house in order is part of an orderly energy transition. “An important task for gas and LNG companies is to come to grips with their own operations, optimising energy use and carbon footprint. This can achieve up to a 10% performance gain,” says Jannes Regterschot, LNG Client Director at Petrogenium. “Yet over the longer term this is not enough. We can work with customers to evaluate their options and make timely interventions to see the desired outcomes.”
With three decades of experience as a former service provider to asset owners, Jannes knows the benefits of preventing process outages, implementing management processes and “creating a culture in which every employee wants to make an effort to resolve issues and make improvements.”
Our challenge, he feels, is “to convince plant management to develop long-term business strategies that recognise the upcoming changes in regulations and customer demand and the need to move to a net zero operation long-term.” The first step when improving current operations, he recommends, is “training technical staff, particularly in operational excellence or safety or a subject matter expertise like rotating equipment.” When their own organisation cannot resolve the issues or require deep technical expertise, customers come to Petrogenium for assistance.
Jannes says Petrogenium may initially provide point solutions, but this could lead to a more intense involvement in operational issues as the support relation grows. Petrogenium experts can conduct a wide range of support services, from remote document reviews, to onsite operational reviews to safety audits. From general auditing to troubleshooting a specific issue in a young operating plant, Petrogenium can support asset owners along the full spectrum of operating issues. With decades of experience in the industry, Petrogenium staff can support customers in making the right investments.
With new plants coming on stream, asset owners may find they cannot solve all their own problems. When prices were depressed, operational optimisation was the norm. But now that we see record LNG prices in Asia and Europe, the focus shifts to maximum production. “At the same time, the industry needs to get their act together for the longer-term energy transition,” he says. With relatively new technologies like carbon capture or using hydrogen fuel, “there are so many things that can go wrong.”
This is where Petrogenium can step in. We have experience with supporting the energy transition in the refining and chemicals business. With a project time-to-value of about seven years, external expertise can make the difference between long-term survival or extinction.
With every asset requiring a specific solution, Jannes’ team can provide concept studies for each as they navigate their future.