With aging equipment and facilities, operators face increasing challenges in maintaining equipment reliability, integrity, and safety. One of the biggest hidden threats to your plant’s efficient and safe operation is operating sampling systems as separate entities within the plant. This leaves plants open to gaps and potential risks in their sampling program and process.

Refineries can mitigate these risks with a holistic sampling program that monitors processes across multiple refinery areas to mitigate risks, maximize plant performance and reduce the burden on plant managers and operations.

CASE STUDY: Breaking the Siloes in Refineries

A large oil and gas producer was struggling with the siloed approach to sampling within its refinery. The company wanted visibility into its sampling process across the plant, so they contacted Sentry Equipment to establish a holistic refinery-wide sampling program.

First, our team assessed the health and efficacy of the plant’s current panels and sampling equipment throughout the refinery. This was assessed through a sample panel audit. The audit identified valuable strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within each area of sampling.

Based on this audit, sample panels were installed where they were most needed and retrofitted any existing panels to maximize performance. The selected maintenance was executed based on the refinery’s budget and shutdown timeline.

Our experts also trained plant staff so they could maximize the use of the new and updated panels. A quarterly maintenance program was established to ensure the sampling equipment continued to perform well.

As each update and retrofit was applied, our experts became valued team members for the refinery, offering advice and best practices that helped the refinery optimize processes.

The Result: Up to $250,000 Yearly Savings

Through the 10 years of this partnership, our holistic approach to sampling has saved the plant $100,000 to $250,000 annually. Savings stem from a variety of areas:

• Reduced person-hours and labor costs to manage multiple sampling systems across the refinery
• Accurate samples
• Sampling consistency
• Process efficiencies
• Equipment reliability

Sentry’s oil and gas experts became a seamless part of their team to break through sampling silos to maximize uptime and ensure safety. 

Learn how your team can begin implementing a sampling program with our new eBook: Tips to Implementing a Downstream Sampling Program.

Identify key points in your sampling journey such as:

• When to repair or replace your equipment
• How to establish a sampling program
• ​How to develop a refinery-wide sampling strategy
• How to maximize your investment with installation and training