Over a period of 4 years, Sofis has successfully executed three major projects with an international EPC contractor for an end-user in Kuwait, delivering all three projects within the project schedule and without being confronted with any unforeseen issues. The Sofis design and project engineering team played an important role in the timely delivery and installation of the many valve interlocks.
The projects
From 2016 onwards, Sofis supplied over 8.560 interlocks across 3 projects to an international EPC contractor, spanning four years and multiple batches.
- 4.615 valve interlocks were allocated to the Lower Fars Heavy Oil development project (the largest EPC project ever executed in terms of volume of interlocks)
- 1.561 interlocks to the Kuwait Oil Company’s (KOC) Manifold Group Trunkline (MGT) system
- 1.432 to the Kuwait National Petroleum Company’s (KNPC) Clean Fuels Project, Mina Abdulla (MAB1) refinery
The valve interlocks are to safeguard critical manual valve operations and are installed on many pressure relief and pigging systems.
Complex engineering and planning requirements
All three projects were executed almost parallelly during the same period and successfully delivered on time. Siddharth Ravishankar, Global EPC Sales Manager at Sofis: “We were able to plan our project schedule in such a way, that at no point in time the factory was over-burdened by having to deliver so many interlocks together. Each valve interlock that goes out of the door is custom built and put together by a highly trained team of assemblers. Managing this task, which involves several thousands of interlocks, requires the capability of executing large volume projects”. Siddharth adds that projects of this magnitude also rely on complex engineering, planning and operational management. “The fact that we were only 20 minutes away from the customer meant we were always available to ease their concerns. Our global reach and access were indeed highly appreciated by our customer.”
4.600 valve interlocks on a single project
As the last batches of valve interlock systems have now been installed, the Sofis’ engineering, design and operations team can look back on the successful completion of large projects of unprecedented magnitude. Siddharth Ravishankar: “We used a lot of our project management skills to help make these projects successful. Not only did we keep close communication and provide hands-on advice and guidance, but we also had to carefully plan our supply chain management. Not every day does one end up with needing over 4.600 valve interlocks on a single project. Stock management during this time was even more critical, to ensure smaller projects were not negatively impacted. In all, we showed our ability to successfully manage these kinds of large projects.”
Mounting a single valve interlock is relatively easy from a technical point of view. However, when installing large quantities of interlocking systems for a single project, the execution of such a project could be complex. What are the decisive factors that determine a successful installation of valve interlocks? Read ‘The #10 factors that determine a successful installation of valve interlocks‘.