The Becht Team
Paul Southerland
Mr. Southerland is a licensed professional engineer with over 36 years of experience in the Oil Refining and Electrical Power Generation industries. He has a diverse career in building and managing Reliability Programs and in Project Management covering Fixed and Rotating Equipment at both large and small refineries and power stations. His focus in recent years has been on Corrosion Control Documents (CCD’s), Integrity Operating Windows (IOW’s), Risk Based Inspection (RBI), and other Fixed Equipment Integrity Programs.
For the past 2 years, Paul has been a Project Manager for Becht Engineering with a main focus of Corrosion Control Documents and Integrity Operating Windows for both large and small refineries in the US. Project work has also included Risk Based Inspection studies on several small gas plants and also as the Root Cause Analysis Facilitator on Fixed Equipment Failures.
Prior to working for Becht, Paul lead the Fixed Equipment Integrity and NDE Inspection Teams for a 55,000 bpd Refinery and Terminal Operation which included revamping the entire Piping Inspection Program, establishing IOWs, and completing the RBI analysis and Inspection Planning for all Pressure Vessels. This included fast tracking follow-up inspections and first time CML data collection ahead of an approaching Turnaround scope freeze target. Paul developed and managed many other Special Emphasis Programs including Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI), Soil to Air Interface, TLR, and Thin Pipe Management. Paul was also the Refinery’s Bolting and Gasket Specialist and helped set up their initial Quality Management (QA/QC) Program. Paul is a certified Level 1 “Fitness For Service” specialist.
Prior to being the Fixed Equipment Integrity Lead, Paul served 2 years as the Technical Lead for the Refinery’s 2013 major Turnaround event overseeing a group of 15 Engineers. This included scope development and risk ranking followed by detailed design engineering and planning for over 300 Engineering Work Packages. During the TA event, Paul lead the daily review and evaluation for all Turnaround Added Work and Field Change Notifications.
Paul’s initial career at the refinery was as the Reliability Team Lead and Reliability Programs Manager. Programs that Paul helped developed included Reliability Centered Maintenance, Root Cause Analysis, Bad Actors, Reliability Threat Identification, and many others. Paul earned his Lean Sigma Green Belt and Rotating Equipment Level 2 Vibration Certification and did a lot of work to combine Reliability and Risk Prioritization into the Routine Work Control and Engineering Projects Scheduling and Execution Programs.
Prior to joining the Refining Industry, Paul spent 10 years as a Reliability Programs Specialist for a Midwest Public Utility overseeing 3 Nuclear Stations and 5 Coal Fired Generation facilities. Prior to that, Paul spent 12 years as a Design Engineer and Project Manager rebuilding and modernizing several older coal fired generation stations.
Paul has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University, holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Case Western Reserve University, and is API-581 RBI Certified.
- All
- Advisor Resources
- Business Administration
- Business Development
- Capital Projects
- Corrosion Materials
- Digital Solutions
- Due Diligence
- Fired Heaters
- Inst/Elec Controls
- Leadership
- Machinery
- Maintenance & Turnarounds
- Mechanical Eng
- Mechanical Integrity
- Nuclear
- Piping
- Process Eng
- Reliability
- Strategic Business Planning
- Training
- Business Administration
Maureen Brody
Hearl Mead, Jr
