SOCAR Türkiye Transforms Safety-Critical Equipment Management and Root Cause Analysis Governance

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Customer Information

Introduction

Industry

Oil & Gas

Products

Asset Performance Management

SOCAR Türkiye is the largest integrated energy group in Türkiye, operating across petrochemicals, refining, natural gas, trade, transmission, and distribution. The group manages sites including Petkim, STAR Refinery, Petkim RES wind power plant, SOCAR Terminal strategic logistics base, and SOCAR Storage.

Challenge

SOCAR’s Operations & Maintenance teams lacked comprehensive visibility and control over the company’s abundance of safety-critical assets and Root Cause Analysis (RCA) processes. The team wanted to evolve from a reactive maintenance approach where true equipment health was often unknown, leading to potential safety risks and operational surprises. Data integrity was also a major concern across their large systems, with difficulties in accurately linking maintenance activities to specific equipment and tracking failures. Adding to this, their RCA governance was manual and inefficient, resulting in a substantial backlog of overdue actions and considerable communication issues with escalation and traceability.

Solution

In collaboration with GE Vernova, SOCAR’s team implemented Meridium ® Asset Performance Management software. This included applications for Asset Strategy Management, Risk-Based Inspection, Root Cause Analysis (RCA), and spare part optimization, as well as SmartSignal® predictive analytics. In addition, the team integrated its asset monitoring and SAP plant maintenance systems, giving plant operators greater visibility, traceability, and automation of maintenance tasks.

Results

Using Meridium APM software, employee training, and maintenance alignment, SOCAR Türkiye’s Reliability team supported the transformation from reactive to proactive maintenance practices. With greater visibility into risk levels and performance of critical assets and safety barriers, major accidents became preventable and manageable. The digitalization of RCA supports timely follow-up, stronger accountability, and visible escalation before actions remain unresolved for lengthy periods.

Positive outcomes included:
  • 90% Reduction in Overdue RCA Recommendations: Within just two months of activating the RCA recommendation escalation system, SOCAR Türkiye achieved a 90% reduction in overdue Root Cause Analysis recommendations, with sustained low levels afterward. This significantly improved accountability and efficiency in addressing critical issues.
  • Enhanced Safety & Operational Visibility: They established a "Live Barrier Model" for safety-critical equipment (SCE) that provides near real-time visibility into equipment health, identifies potential risks, and ensures compliance with performance standards. As part of the process, they assessed approximately 350,000 pieces of equipment and achieved the KPI of zero impaired SCEs.
  • Improved Data Integrity and Automation in Maintenance: The team developed automated validation logic and follow-up mechanisms for maintenance activities. This ensures all SCE are correctly linked to planned maintenance, failures are automatically tracked in SAP, and data quality is maintained across GE Vernova and SAP systems, minimizing manual errors and missed notifications.
GE Vernova
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