The ability to draw lessons from past projects and constantly improve has turned Aurex Constructors into the preferred contractor for maintenance shutdowns on mega petrochemical plants in the region.
By Jimmy Swira
Aurex Constructors has been in the plant maintenance and shutdown space for more than three decades. During this time, the company has worked on some of the most complex industrial facilities in Southern Africa for both blue-chip and smaller companies.
On the Coal fired power generation side, Aurex Constructors is involved in both scheduled and non-scheduled maintenance activities on various critical power plant equipment at the Medupi and Kusile power stations.
Past Success with Sasol
Aurex Constructors’ proven success with Sasol stands as a prime example of meticulous planning and execution during maintenance shutdowns. There is no better indication of this than Aurex’s history as a go-to shutdown partner, having executed mechanical and piping works on most of the petrochemical giant’s critical units.
“We have had a robust relationship with the petrochemical giant since 2006, and building that level of trust took years of hard work,” Aurex Constructors’ Executive Director of Business Development and International Expansion, Grant Villet, enthuses, expressing pride in playing a major role in enabling reliability and availability of Sasol’s mission-critical plants.
A High-Pressure Business
Reflecting on the milestones Aurex Constructors achieves year on year, Villet stresses that it is important to appreciate the role played by the team involved. “Maintenance is a high-pressure business. Pressure comes with the territory. Fortunately, our team are experts who always relish challenges and excel consistently.”
Actually, the huge burden on the team’s shoulders should not be entirely surprising.
Typically, on completion of maintenance shutdown activities, customers expect their petrochemical plants to be up and running efficiently, safely, and in compliance with sound environmental practices. There is no compromise or margin for error, bearing in mind that other industries need a guaranteed supply of feedstock from the facilities.
So, how does the Aurex team manage?
Meticulous Planning and Implementation Key
Villet attributes the milestones to meticulous planning and implementation. “Through tapping into previous project experience from the onset, every vital detail is included.
“The process starts months before the maintenance – in essence, that’s when the work starts. From the get-go, if you position the right people and the right management , the project runs much smoother .”
Truth be told, the task can be quite demanding.
Mobilising the Right People
A typical mega project can involve mobilising anywhere between 3,000 and 5,500 people to work on a three- to four-week shutdown. The staff recruited may include, but are not limited to, artisans, assistants, foremen, supervisors, and management.
Villet elaborates: “Recruitment is not just about the numbers, but ensuring the core team has the required competencies.”
Accordingly, competency assessments are done in line with the South African Qualifications Association (SAQA) which is accredited by Merseta. They involve a written theoretical test, a practical test, inductions, and other steps.
Villet mentions safety as an integral component of the competency training. “It is worth highlighting that the team adheres to safety and quality and ensures that everyone is onboard.”
Safety and Quality
During maintenance shutdowns, there are strict systems, procedures, and policies that must be complied with as part of safety compliance and quality assurance. For this reason, the Aurex team sees to it that industrial plants, typically high-risk areas, remain safe during the course of work. In addition, quality assurance-related issues start right at the beginning of the process.
Aurex’s edge in this area is that it holds all core ISO certifications for environmental, quality, and safety management. And so, unsurprisingly, through thorough preparation, Aurex is able to complete mechanical works on time, to the expected quality standard, and within budget.
“The bottom line is: if you get your preparation right, you get your project right. The ratio of preparation is so much bigger than the actual execution effort. ” he says, underlining commissioning as the most vital phase of the completion.
Commissioning Stage
At the commissioning stage, there are a number of steps that must be addressed for the project to be considered ready for operation. Aurex is involved in helping the client with the intricacies required, beyond the scope of mechanical works.
Villet states: “Our role in commissioning involves tracking the deliverables through the process and following that process thoroughly to the end.”
He adds: “Typically, commissioning is a meticulous procedure – different deliverables are captured on the register at the beginning of maintenance work – mechanical, instrumentation, and electrical. These have to be signed off as per plan and the quality packs to ensure 100% completion. Otherwise, the plant won’t go online if there are pending issues.”
“It is a phased process. For instance, once mechanical completion is signed, it releases the mechanical contractor from the duties. Then the rest follows suit.”
In the end, by offering commissioning support, the Aurex team helps the plant achieve a safe, leak free andsuccessful startup. Generally, what contributes to Aurex’s success in shutdowns is that its systems and processes are integrated with the clients’.
Dividends of Digitisation
One of the changes the company has brought in maintenance shutdowns and other projects, in general, is improving efficiency and tracking systems through digitisation, where everything gets captured online.
Markedly, digitisation has brought dividends – resulting in the removal of old, cumbersome, manual paper-trail processes where documents could get lost. Citing an example, Villet explains: “Through digitisation, we bring in time stamps, full traceability, and accountability throughout the process.”
Aurex has the capability to tailor a solution to suit a customer’s needs. For instance, it can develop systems to track or monitor activities such as inventory control, material control, and stores control. The company can introduce a barcoding system and a scanning system.
Another area is the digitisation of time and attendance: tracking people clocking in and clocking out. This has brought much-needed efficiency to project management.
Cloud-based, all data collected is accessible whenever the client needs it for their convenience.
The People App
Without question, Aurex’s most groundbreaking success story is the People App, which stores a database of contractors and people with required competencies, among others.
Due to this feature, the App has proved very beneficial in recruitment, Villet points out. “When manpower is required to work on a project, in no time, the People App pulls up a full list of people that will qualify to do this work. In contrast, before, everything was being run off an Excel sheet and documents were being stored in boxes.”
In a nutshell, the digital solution can track, monitor, analyse trends, and make things quicker, faster, safer, and more cost-effective.
Always forward-thinking, Aurex Constructors will continue developing relevant apps, along with other innovations, to meet clients’ respective shutdown maintenance needs.
Other Business interests
Besides maintenance shutdowns for petrochemical plants, Aurex is involved in terminal-related construction & maintenance work for oil companies and building utility-scale solar farms.
i. Terminal-related Work for Oil Companies
Terminal-related work for oil companies entails managing subcontractors on behalf of the customer, ensuring efficient and safe execution of daily maintenance tasks. One of the biggest clients in this niche is Shell, with nine terminals across the country.
Villet comments: “This involves the collective efforts of the clients and ourselves going through a rigorous onboarding process of subcontractors and service providers to support their operations.”
On average, the Aurex team contributes to achieve a 90% Gantry availability for Shell, which, in effect, is 90% reliability of supplying fuel to the market.
Aurex has also donework for Sasol, Natref, Engen, Sapref, PetroSA and Astron Energy in the Western Cape.
At this point in time, Aurex Constructors has refurbished 29 tanks in South Africa, Mozambique, and Namibia, and constructed 2 newly built tanks for Total Energies in South Africa
ii. Utility-Scale Solar Farms
Aurex builds utility-scale solar farms through full EPCM solutions, covering design & engineering, procurement, installation, and commissioning. The company has mega projects to its name.
By and large, Aurex Constructors’ business runs across all the energy sectors – oil, gas and chemicals, mining and metallurgy, conventional coal-fired power stations, and solar photovoltaic ( PV) renewable energy.
From Kentz to Aurex Constructors
- 1981 – Started in South Africa as Kentz Engineers and Constructors with Sasol as an Electrical & Instrumentation contractor.
- 2014 Kentz was acquired by SNC-Lavalin – Canadian construction company for it’s Global SMEIP Oil & Gas capabilities
- In 2019, SNC-Lavalin divested from South Africa.
- Late 2020, Aurex Constructors, a wholly-owned South African company, was established
