“We had a difficult challenge ahead of us and needed to replace an obsolete technology yet have minimal impact to our refinery. With Honeywell’s Experion system we were able to migrate our entire plant in less than two weeks with a new system that improved reliability and efficiency.”
MK Kang, I&C Maintenance Manager, SK Energy
Having grown its company into one of the leading refineries in Asia, SK Energy knew that in order to maintain its leadership status it must update its technology and invest in state-of-the-art systems to keep its competitive edge. Faced with increasing maintenance and high costs to support its legacy Yamatake system, the company turned to Honeywell and its advanced global technology team to migrate to the Experion® Process Knowledge System (PKS) and improve system reliability.
A difficult challenge due to short turnaround time and the scope of the project, Honeywell developed a solution that minimized risk and met the shutdown requirements resulting in the following benefits:
Founded in 1962 as Korea’s first oil refiner, SK Energy is the leading energy and petrochemical company in Korea with more than 4,900 employees, KRW 22 trillion in sales and more than 20 offices around the world. The company is the fourth largest refiner in Asia and is also the world’s second largest single complex oil refinery.
SK Energy’s market leadership allows it to maintain its competitive advantage in regional refining markets while also deploying resources to penetrate new markets around the globe through its burgeoning energy exploration and production (E&P) business. SK Energy’s rapid growth in E&P, coupled with the compnany’s expanding position in China, has increased the company’s global footprint and helped to positiong SK Energy as one of Asia Pacific’s leading energy companies. SK Energy currently develops and produces oil in 12 countries that span Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Faced with obsolete technology at its refinery in Korea, SK Energy had to replace its aging Yamatake system on a very aggressive timeline.
“We were dealing with the ever increasing maintenance and support costs of our outdated system. Combined with the poor support available due to limited expertise on these systems, we knew the time was right to update our technology,” said MK Kang, I&C Maintenance Manager, SK Energy. “We also faced significant time pressures and the risk of increasing failures of console and controller parts.”
Another impetus driving the technology migration was that there was no capacity for expansion of the installed legacy system and this impacted refinery expansion plans.
In order to update its technology, SK Energy first turned to its initial automation vendor to investigate a replacement strategy. However, after several discussions it became clear that this was not the best methodology. Soon after, Honeywell Korea met with senior level officials at SK Energy to learn more about their needs and expectations. Involvement by third-party associations such as the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association (NPRA) in support of Honeywell’s people and products helped convince SK Energy to select Honeywell and its Experion system.
Through various interactions and the ability to support SK Energy’s Task Force Team (TFT), Honeywell instilled confidence in its people and systems. Honeywell participated in SK Energy’s TFT activities including Experion onsite training, site survey, case histories, local engineering support and migration justification reports, developing a high level of trust between the two project teams.
“It was clear from our initial research that from a technical perspective, Honeywell was able to offer a far superior proposition,” said MK Kang.
Honeywell presented a solution that mitigated shutdown period limitations and minimized engineering risk. Native Windows functionality minimized operators’ risks on familiarity with a new Experion environment during transition which also minimized plant disruptions.
“Honeywell provided us excellent project service execution which resulted in a number of demonstrable benefits to our organization,” said MK Kang. “We completed a successful two-week technology migration and provided integrated operator displays and training to help improve overall plant efficiency.”
Honeywell’s Experion system helps transform process control beyond traditional DCS functionality by unifying people with process variables, business requirements and asset management. Having implemented a cost-effective migration path for SK Energy, Honeywell was able to provide a zero-footprint solution that worked seamlessly across the entire plant to help improve efficiency and increase stability at the refinery.
Experion® is a registered trademark of Honeywell International Inc.