Service agreement between EagleBurgmann and TOTAL

The plant

The TOTAL refinery Mit­teldeutsch­land GmbH, located in Spergau near Leuna, is one of Europe‘s most modern re­finer­ies, with a pro­cess­ing capacity of ap­prox­i­mately 11 million t/ year. It belongs to the TOTAL Group and processes crude oil from Russia.

The service agreement

Initial talks with the planning com­pa­nies were held as far back as the early nineties in co­op­er­a­tion with EagleBurgmann France; a service agree­ment was ul­ti­mately con­cluded with the refinery in 1997. This agree­ment is on an annual fixed-cost basis and provides for the ex­clu­sive per­for­mance of repairs of all me­chan­i­cal seals in op­er­a­tion at the plant. It was extended in 2005 for a further five years.

Service Center Halle-Leipzig

For the purposes of ensuring optimal plant avail­abil­ity in terms of the con­trac­tual arrange­ment, EagleBurgmann opened up a fully equipped service center (SC) in April 1997 with a workshop area of 140 m2 in close prox­im­ity of the refinery. This service center was sub­se­quently re­lo­cated in 1997 to a new building with a floor area of 750 m2 at which a staff of six is cur­rently active. The modern ma­chin­ery enables the fol­low­ing types of work – among others – to be per­formed to the highest standard of quality:

• Grinding, lapping, polishing
• Shrinkage
• Flatness testing
• Peak-to-valley measurement
• Measurement of wear and tolerances
• Measurement of spring power and leakage
• Pressure tests

This enables fast response to the re­quire­ments of the refinery but also to those of other com­pa­nies in the region as well.

At the TOTAL refinery the SC Halle-Leipzig is re­spon­si­ble for handling the fol­low­ing ac­tiv­i­ties, in par­tic­u­lar:

• Repair of all mechanical seals employed by TOTAL at the refinery, irrespective of manufacturer
• Stocking of the necessary quantities of spare parts
• Analysis and documention of failure
• Documentation of service lives
• Solving technical problems
• Consultancy on and control of the installation and operation of mechanical seals
• Provision of assembly personnel
• Training of refinery personnel
• Standardization of mechanical seals

EagleBurgmanns‘ seals in use

Right from the start of the project, EagleBurgmann put the focus on stan­dard­iza­tion, based on a case of the company’s “SPIR” (Spare Parts In­ter­change­abil­ity Record) software - which has already proven itself in the offshore industry - being used to an ad­van­tage. The phi­los­o­phy of the API 682 standard in its first edition provided the basis for the se­lec­tion and design of the seals to be used. Type H75 O-ring and MFL metal bellows seals in car­tridge design were the main types in­stalled.

Competitors’ seals in use

Besides those from EagleBurgmann, the refinery also uses seals from Flowserve and Crane. The service agree­ment also provides for the main­te­nance and repair at the EagleBurgmann service center Halle-Leipzig of all the seals in use at the refinery that were provided by these com­pa­nies.

The refinery’s operator has just one contact person for all mechanical seals in use there. This concept makes for enhanced availability of the plant, and its advantages are obvious: fast response and repair times, less seals and spare parts to be kept on stock, as well as the complete documentation of all activities with regular meetings including the analysis and evaluation of “bad actors” and the MTBR factor. From initial equipment supply and installation right through to repairs, EagleBurgmann is able to offer its customers the entire spectrum of service capability and has repeatedly shown itself to be a competent and reliable partner.

Results of the cooperation

The intensive cooperation between TOTAL and EagleBurgmann led to a reduction of 41 % in the number of repairs and of around 54 % in the costs arising from “bad actors” in the period from commencement of the service agreement 1997. Meanwhile, the contract has been prolonged twice and now runs until 2016.