Special Report - Finning Canada

Keep It Up(and Running)Finning’s new Gas Engine Exchangeprogram swaps out engines to beoverhauled and replaces themso fast your head will spinby Robin BruneTAside from setbacks caused by the recession, natural gasproduction in Alberta continues to be a key economic driver.An estimated 12 billion cubic feet is extracted daily from morethan 92,000 wells in the province, with two-thirds of that total goingdirectly to the all-important U.S. market.Increased production efficiency is an ongoing goal, and given thefierce competition in the gas compression sector, the one word nobodywants to hear is “downtime.” That’s why a growing number of oiland gas producers are turning to Finning (Canada) for help. The GasEngines Exchange Program is saving natural gas producers money byminimizing the downtime caused by on-site engine overhauls.Instead of enduring lengthy on-site overhauls, program participantssimply contact Finning for a swing (replacement) engine. Finningtechnicians deliver and install the remanufactured engine on theworksite. The tired engine core is taken away for remanufacturing forfuture use. “We launched the program in 2008, and it’s already grownat a faster pace than projected,” says product manager Ehtisham Anwer.“The advantages of the program are substantial: remanufacturedengines are only 60 to 70 per cent of the cost of new engines, they canbe installed in a short time with less on-site labour, and they’re rebuiltto Caterpillar specifications by certified technicians using genuineCaterpillar parts.”Canadian Natural Resources, one of Canada’s largest producersof natural gas, was instrumental in developing this program. “CNRofficials approached Finning in 2007 because they were running inexcess of 90,000 hours on their engines,” says Finning product supportsales representative Chris Paliwoda. CNR officials were worried aboutthe downtime of the hard-working engines that weredue for overhauls. They needed a quick turnaroundfor their engine rebuilds.After working with CNR to determine theparameters and content of the exchange program,Finning put in place a startup exchange inventoryof G3304, G3306 and G3408 engines. “The firsttransaction with CNR took place in April 2008,”says Paliwoda. “Our knuckle boom truckwith a replacement engine arrived at a CNRcompressor building at 9 a.m. as scheduled.The old engine was disconnected, andreplaced by a remanufactured G3306 engine.The replacement engine was up and running by5 p.m. that same evening.”Since then, several customers in Alberta andBritish Columbia have benefitted from the remanufacturedgas exchange engines. Finning’s Edmonton facility now offersreplacement rebuilds on all variants of the G3300, 3400, 3500and 3600 engines, and Paliwoda describes them as “close aspossible to plug-n-play as you can get.”There are thousands of gas engines operating in Finning’sterritory, from small G3300s of 220 bhps to large G3600s of 2,270bhps. The production power of these engines is considerable:a G3600 averages $1,000 worth of gas production per cylinder,or $12,000 per hour. Under normal field operations, an averageengine nets in excess of $35,000 per week.26 tracks & treads Summer 2009www.finning.ca