I’ve spent 10 years on EPC jobs focused on materials selection and coating specs, and I have an offer from a Gulf Coast refiner to run RBI and CP upgrades — how much real influence do you get on long-term asset life when you’re inside the fence, especially on monitoring budgets and UT/coupon routes? I’m preventive by nature and don’t want to end up firefighting leaks; would appreciate honest takes on responsibility, stability, and pay before I jump.
Inside the fence you get real pull if you wire your RBI outputs to a spend gate in SAP/Maximo and take ownership of changing “UT/coupon routes”. I shifted ~$120k of UT to wet H2S circuits by flagging API 581 red‑LoF CMLs and auto‑creating WOs, and we saw fewer leak callouts before the next TAR. Caveat: if Ops owns the routes it drifts — will you own them or just advise?
@nash_2022 > callouts before the next TAR. Caveat: if Ops owns the routes it drifts — will you own I’ve fixed that by pushing a simple “RBI deviation” MOC: any skipped UT/coupon needs the asset manager’s initials, which slashes deferrals and lets you pull small monitoring spend mid-cycle; caveat, it only sticks if you also have a fast-PO bucket for emergent probes/clamps. Would they let you own that MOC?
I got real pull by setting a small ‘RBI reserve’ (about 1% of fixed OPEX) that auto-released when API 581 risk went from medium to high, letting me shift monitoring spend mid-month and redirect thickness routes or add coupons when CP trended off. It only stuck because I sat on the monthly spend review and could move $10–20k between circuits at a Gulf Coast site, so make sure you control that lever.