Understanding RAM analysis and typical availability values for LNG plants

F. J. Malaret, Technip, Paris, France The overall production availability of an LNG plant is a major criterion for economic evaluation. It is, therefore, important to have an estimation of the overall availability of an LNG plant, especially at the early stage of development. A simple way to perform this estimation that does not require any calculations is to use availability data from a reference project, or to use typical mean production availability (PA) values for LNG projects. To perform meaningful comparisons, the reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM) model and the reliability data used must be fully understood. PA for an LNG plant is discussed, encompassing the major