Novel Application of AI: Harnessing Tacit Knowledge for LNG Plant Start-Up

Abstract

To capture the invaluable tacit knowledge from skilled operators and leverage on insights generated from over two decades of plant operation data, an AI-driven live advisory was developed to provide operators with real-time parameters control advisory during start-up, in response to actual process and equipment conditions. The solution had been deployed to ten start-ups in Malaysia LNG, successfully achieving 44% reduction in duration and 17% reduction in carbon emission from reduced gas usage. The shorter start-up duration translated into significant value creation from production opportunity, yielding an impressive return on investment of 35, in just 15 months. Furthermore, six of the start-ups also emerged as the top executions when benchmarked against all historical occurrences in the past two decades, demonstrating its ability to enable consistent and optimised start-ups.