The Daily Duties of an Oil and Gas Maintenance Planner

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Within the oil and gas industry, there are many important jobs that work together to ensure the smooth day-to-day operations of oil and gas companies around the world. Yet while all jobs are vital to the success of any company, some of the most important are maintenance planner jobs. Because businesses realize time is money, maintenance planners can use their knowledge and expertise to ensure all maintenance tasks on offshore platforms as well as projects on dry land are done on time and in a safe manner.

Project Management

One of the main daily tasks of a maintenance planner is project management. To do this successfully, a maintenance planner must always make sure the job has the necessary personnel, parts, and equipment needed to maintain smooth and efficient operations. If a job does not have the necessary personnel or equipment needed to maintain the project’s completion date, it can end up costing the company thousands of dollars in overtime pay as well as additional costs to purchase parts and equipment. Therefore, a maintenance planner must be able to manage the work plan with which they have been provided.

Maintenance Crews

Whether it is an offshore oil platform or a pipeline stretching hundreds of miles across a state or nation, maintenance planners must make sure the crews needed to perform maintenance operations have what they need. Known as maximizing the crew’s “tool time,” this is the area of expertise where maintenance planners earn their money. Being able to coordinate maintenance crews so that they are able to move from one task to another as fast as possible is crucial for success, while also making sure the work being done meets or exceeds the company’s requirements as well as national or international safety rules.

Schedule Planning

Maintenance planners spend much of their time sitting at a desk planning out duties for days or even weeks ahead. They are responsible for coordinating their activities with those of management, ensuring they have the necessary funding available to purchase whatever they need. They also must have the ability to work well with their maintenance crew members, and have the ability to complete work schedules as well as make sure they have enough workers possessing the skills needed to complete the various tasks that must be done.

Managing the Work Order Backlog

As with almost any job, maintenance planners inevitably face a work order backlog at some point. To be successful in this job, a maintenance planner needs to know how to prioritize what jobs need to be completed right away and which ones can be put off for a brief period of time. They must be able to judge the risks to the project if certain pieces of equipment are down for any length of time, and how it will affect the overall operation. By being able to do this well, maintenance planners can find themselves being a very integral part of the project team with virtually any oil and gas company in the world.