Critical unit rescue in 5 weeks
  ExxonMobil Chemical's Fife ethylene plant (FEP) located 25 miles north of Edinburgh, Scotland is one of the largest and most modern in Europe. Half of its product is distributed through the UK ethylene pipeline network,
and the rest is pumped to Braefoot Bay Marine Terminal for storage before shipping to Antwerp. In November 2005, the plant suffered a catastrophic failure on its process gas compressor train, the economic implications of which were millions of dollars in lost production per week. Failure of the low-pressure turbine module caused a severe oil leak spill and subsequent fire. The fire seriously damaged the prime mover, a GE MS5002C gas turbine, and to a lesser extent damaged its centrifugal compressor driven equipment.

Understanding the urgency of the matter, GE Energy’s Oil & Gas Global Service response team flew directly to the site and assessed damage extent.

FEP personnel initially thought the gas turbine could be rebuilt on site, but our team quickly determined that neither site repair nor replacement with a new unit provided an acceptable turnaround time for FEP management. Workscope of this scale usually requires at least a year of project planning, preparation and execution.

To help get the plant back online more quickly, GE Energy, Oil & Gas offered an alternative: our Florence facility had a suitable unit on hand that had been damaged by a crane during transport. While external damage could be easily repaired, full turbine dismantling and reassembly were required to ensure that the unit was in as-new condition for FEP. Instrumentation and auxiliary systems also needed modifications and upgrading to match the plant’s operating requirements (unique application of regenerative cycle and steam turbine load sharing).

For all of the above, an action plan was quickly developed and put in place by the Global Service team in partnership with the Engineering, Manufacturing and Sourcing departments.

FEP management was impressed with the plan and, on November 20, approved the Repair & Modification strategy. Contingency plans were devised as work progressed – for instance, since certain parts could not be repaired (e.g., intake and exhaust plenums), they were taken out of the Florence regular production line without jeopardizing other jobs already in the queue.

All upgrades were complete just 17 days later, the unit was shipped by special freight (aboard the world’s second largest aircraft, a Russian-built Antonov 124), and the unit was started up on December 26th. This work was all completed on an extremely expedited schedule which saved ExxonMobil millions of dollars in potential lost production verses the other options available to them, and in the end turned the clock back to "as new" condition on a twenty year old machine.


ExxonMobil’s Employee magazine produced a
cover article on the global support provided for
the FEP turnaround.