Tank farms are key elements in crude storage—their life time utilization, maintenance practices and operating patterns determinethe profitability of a refinery or an Oil & Gas company or a tank terminal operator.

Maximizing Tank Utilization

Considering the volatile nature of oil prices and the geopolitical situation across the globe, it is important to optimize oil tank storage capacities to ensure businesses do not have supply disruptions, have minimum opportunity loss and maintain lean inventory. It becomes imperative for tank farm owners to have agile operations that enable them to pull out tanks for maintenance and inspection and bring them back into operations, as and when situations demand.

To maximize asset utilization of tanks, it becomes crucial for refineries, tank terminals and Oil & Gas companies to determine accurately tank health based on relevant standards despite unavailability of key resources for assessment and take business decisions at the right time. Any disruption due to unplanned / emergency maintenance could impact the business heavily.

In the current practice, crude tanks are recommended for maintenance and inspection (M&I) every 10-15 years. At any given time, all the tanks commissioned together can be due for cleaning and detailed inspection. Having number of tanks due for maintenance, M&I for all these tanks cannotbe cannot be carried out due to disruption of supply/delivery at the tank farms and this warranties the necessity of prioritization in planning these critical activities.

The key question with any decision- maker is—is it possible to have a data-based approach to prioritize the maintenance of tanks?

The cost of emptying a tank to identify corrosion is high and any wrong prioritization might result in in-service failure resulting in a financial hiccup. With the rising scarcity in storage space, maintenance is of utmost interest to tank terminal and Oil & Gas companies. It is predicted that the supply market will test its storage limits in the near future as there is more supply than demand.

An AI/ML-Based Decision Support System for Tank Farm Operations

RETINA360's Tank Farm Analytics helps steer clear of the cost, priority and storage concerns. Its AI/ML-based decision support system computes and estimates the level of corrosion and quantifies the sludge on an ongoing basis without the need to empty a tank. TFA's advanced predictive analytics computing engine assesses tank farms based on various parameters before arriving at a health score that would enable companies to make data-backed decisions.

Real-Time Health-Check for Tank Maintenance Prioritization

Built on RETINA360's AI/ML software platform, can intelligently prioritize tank maintenance based on the health score of the tanks. A health score, computed through algorithms derived from historization of data, allows tank terminal companies and Oil & Gas companies to plan their storage/supply based on data. A data-driven decision is success-driven and doesn't risk compliance or safety.

Predictive Analytics Platform for Visual Intelligence and Analysis

RETINA360 is an astute AI/ML predictive analytics platform with multiple capabilities like dashboarding, historization of data, alerting on anomalies, performance lapses, utilization life and ability to direct on predictive maintenance using AI/ML-led analytics for the energy and utilities industry.