Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) said a 30-day turnaround and inspection (T&I) of its platformer-unifiner units will start today with focus on a major overhaul and upgrade of its recycle compressor gas turbine.

The platformer-unifiner shutdown has been scheduled to follow immediately after the Visbreaker and Ker Rerun units, which are currently under a turnaround, the company said in a statement.

The T&I will focus on a major overhaul and upgrade of the recycle compressor gas turbine GT3650, routing of platformer vent gas to LSDP flare, inspection and repair of around 130 major pieces of equipment such as reactors, furnaces, columns, heat exchangers, control valves and safety relief valves, regeneration of platformer and unifiner catalyst, unloading, screening and dense loading of fresh/regenerated catalyst of platformer and unifiner reactors, repair and replacement of over 50km of piping systems of various types and sizes, in and around the units, overhaul and seal replacement of the platformer gas compressor K3650 and a significant instrument and electrical scope.

At its peak, around 700 company and contractor personnel will be engaged on the platformer-unifiner shutdown, the statement from Bapco said.

The majority will be working around the clock and it is expected that around 200,000 man-hours will be needed.

The turnaround activities which will be carried out under supervision of maintenance division will also ensure participation and full involvement of refining and engineering divisions.

Support from human resources and administration and finance and IT divisions will also be key in ensuring logistical issues are adequately addressed, it added.-TradeArabia News Service