Cutting Refinery Inspection Costs 80% and Planning Time 90X with Generative AI

The client is an Australia-based energy company that operates a gas processing facility. It processes both internally sourced reservoir gas and third-party hydrocarbons. The facility runs over 1,500 mechanical assets: compressors, cooling fans, and motors. Each requires regular inspection to keep processing volumes on contract.

01 The Challenge

Manual inspections across 1,500 assets, planning cycles measured in months, and no reliable way to predict failures

In the U.S. alone, refineries lose an estimated $6.6 billion per year to unplanned downtime and poor maintenance. A single hour of downtime at an oil and gas facility can cost close to $500,000. Yet fewer than 25% of operators use predictive maintenance. Evidence shows it cuts maintenance spending by 30% and unplanned downtime by 40%.

This client operated on the same model as most processing facilities. Reactive maintenance supported by manual inspections. Technicians walked the facility, checked rotating equipment by hand, and logged findings into separate systems.

The team saw an opportunity to do better with the data they already had. The client had invested in IoT sensors and monitoring tools. The data existed. What was missing was a way to turn that data into maintenance decisions at a speed that mattered.

Planning cycles averaged over 80 days. Sensor data, anomaly detection tools, ERP systems, and permit workflows all lived in separate silos. Getting from “this compressor looks off” to “here is the work order” could take months. Previous digitalization attempts had delivered unclear ROI. The maintenance and reliability teams wanted a practical approach that would show results quickly.

02 The Approach

Layer generative AI on top of what already works, then prove it on the hardest equipment first

The client did not need to replace its existing infrastructure. It needed to make the infrastructure it had already paid for deliver results. Provectus, an AI-first systems integrator, proposed a low-disruption approach. Add a generative AI layer on top of the client’s operational IoT and ML stack. No major reengineering. No data migration.

The prototype targeted the facility’s most failure-prone assets first. Rotating equipment like compressors and cooling fans. These were the assets where breakdowns hit throughput hardest. Starting here gave the project a clear success gate.

One technical barrier had blocked previous ML attempts. Traditional models need labeled anomaly data to learn what a failure looks like. In refinery operations, genuine failure events are rare and inconsistently documented. The labeled dataset that supervised learning requires did not exist in sufficient volume.

03 The Build

Sensor integration, anomaly detection, synthetic training data, and automated work-order generation

The build connected real-time sensor feeds to ERP systems. An automated pipeline runs from anomaly detection through to permit generation, parts procurement, and workforce allocation. What previously required manual handoffs across multiple systems now runs as a single flow.

ML models trained with Amazon Lookout for Equipment analyze sensor data to detect abnormal patterns. The models flag potential failures under asset-specific conditions. They catch degradation that fixed-interval inspections would miss.

Generative AI addressed the labeled data problem directly. LLM agents generate synthetic images of deteriorating equipment: rust, cracks, structural wear. This creates the labeled training data that traditional approaches could not produce. Computer vision models trained on this synthetic data now detect structural defects previously invisible to automated systems.

On the operator-facing side, GenAI tools automate document analysis and generate maintenance summaries. Operators query telemetry data through natural language. A planner asks a question in plain English. The system answers from sensor readings, maintenance history, and asset specs.

04 The Results

From three-month planning cycles to same-day, with 80% lower inspection costs

The prototype delivered results clear enough to change how the teams think about AI. Planning cycles that averaged over 80 days collapsed to a single day. Inspections that required technicians on-site for every asset now run through automated anomaly detection.

80%

Reduction in inspection costs

90X faster maintenance planning

“We had invested in sensors and monitoring tools before. We still didn’t have a reliable way to turn that data into decisions. Provectus brought a practical generative AI layer on top of what we already had.” · Head of Reliability

The business impact extended beyond cost and speed. With more reliable uptime and predictable asset behavior, the operator expanded its role. It now offers processing services for new external clients. A maintenance improvement became a revenue expansion.

The prototype’s success broke the internal resistance that had stalled previous efforts. The operator approved a phased rollout across the full asset base.

05 What’s Next

A predictive maintenance foundation built to extend across the full facility

The generative AI prototype proved that existing sensor infrastructure could deliver real value with the right AI layer. Provectus works with the client on expanding predictive maintenance across additional asset classes and facility operations.