Refinery Turnaround Lessons: 109 Lifts in 40 Days
Shutdowns compress months of work into a fixed window. Equipment has to arrive on the planned day, with its paperwork.
A refinery turnaround is the most demanding setting a rental crane can enter. Every day the unit is down costs the owner heavily, so contractors plan the work to the hour and expect equipment to arrive ready. A published account of an Aramco refinery upgrade in Riyadh offers a rare window into the scale involved, and its lessons apply to any shutdown in the Kingdom, from a single exchanger replacement to a major unit upgrade.
The numbers behind the project
The upgrade involved 109 lifts, including eight hydrocracker reactors of 450 tonnes each, inside a 40-day window. Route surveys and lifting studies started long before the shutdown. At roughly three lifts a day on average, there is no room for a missed permit, a late crane or a failed ground test.
In a shutdown, the lifting plan is the project schedule.
Lessons for your own shutdown
- Involve the lifting contractor early, as soon as equipment weights and positions are known.
- Run separate equipment spreads for each work area so that one delay does not stop everything.
- Plan crane selection and assembly sequence for limited space, because a large crane may need room to be built before it lifts.
- Plan for hazardous areas: Aramco standards call for explosion-proof accessories on cranes in classified zones.
Beyond the big cranes: the support spread
The headline lifts take the attention, but shutdowns run on smaller machines too. Mobile cranes handle exchangers and piping spools, boom and scissor lifts provide access to columns and racks, telehandlers move material, and generators and light towers support night shifts. Each of these needs the same gate documents as the big crane. Missing paperwork on a small machine can still stop a work crew.
What to ask your rental company
- Can the machine and its documents meet the client's gate list before the shutdown starts?
- Are named operators and riggers approved for the site?
- Is there a standby machine if one fails during the window?
- How are fuel and servicing handled during 24-hour work?
Why early lift studies save days
A lift study answers questions that are expensive to answer on the day: which crane reaches the load, where it stands, what the ground can carry, what the rigging weighs and how the crane is assembled and removed. When the study starts months ahead, problems show up on paper, such as a pipe rack in the swing path or a pad too small for outriggers, and they are fixed before the shutdown. Starting the study late moves the same problems into the 40-day window, where they cost the most.
Heavy items also need a route. Reactors and columns arrive on specialist transport, and the path from the entry gate to the lift position must carry the combined weight and clear every obstacle. Route surveys, like those described in the Riyadh upgrade, are part of the lifting scope and not an afterthought.
A planning timeline you can copy
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| Months before | Share equipment weights and positions, start lift studies and route surveys, and identify hazardous zones. |
| Weeks before | Confirm cranes, operators and riggers, submit documents for gate approval and book transport. |
| Days before | Check ground, assemble cranes where needed, hold pre-lift meetings and agree stop-work triggers. |
| During the window | Run a daily lift schedule, monitor wind and keep a standby plan for each critical lift. |
Finally, keep a record of what worked. After the shutdown, hold a short review with the lifting team: which lifts ran early, which ran late and why. That record is the best input for the next turnaround and for the rental brief you write for it.
Share this checklist with your project team so everyone shares the same picture before the shutdown clock starts.
How early should I book cranes for a shutdown?
As early as the shutdown scope is known. Lift studies, route surveys and approvals all take time, and large cranes are limited in number.
Do you provide a standby crane?
Ask us in the enquiry. Standby arrangements depend on availability and are confirmed in the quote.
Related services and guides
- Mobile and rough-terrain crane rental
- Refinery and petrochemical equipment rental
- Safety and compliance documents
- Critical lift planning for oil and gas
- Aramco project gate checklist
Sources: Mammoet, turnaround at Saudi Aramco's Riyadh refinery · Kanoo Machinery, SASO and Aramco lifting equipment standards
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Key points: refinery turnaround
Need help with refinery turnaround? Ariane Ventures advises on refinery turnaround for projects across Saudi Arabia, from our Dammam yard to oil and gas fields and industrial cities. We are a registered Saudi Aramco vendor, and our team can review your refinery turnaround requirements and send a quotation, usually within one working day.