Preferred Supplier Agreement Takes Shape Off Coast of Angola Off the coast of Angola, ChevronTexaco’s Benguela-Belize platform will be the first recipient of equipment produced under a preferred supplier agreement established late last year between ChevronTexaco and Dresser-Rand Company.  “The seven DATUM® centrifugal compressor casements – one for flash gas and the others for export gas – represent an agreement that both Dresser-Rand and ChevronTexaco are viewing enthusiastically,” noted Scott Seip, key client manager for the D-R/ChevronTexaco preferred supplier agreement.  “We’re making great strides in this working relationship,” said Eric Mander, strategic sourcing & supply chain management - procurement, at ChevronTexaco. “Both parties are gaining the savings and the improvements we’d hoped for.”  The five-year, preferred supplier agreement covers turbocompressors, API-618 reciprocating compressors (in the U.S.), and aftermarket services for Chevron-Texaco’s installed base. The global agreement covers ChevronTexaco’s upstream business and extends downstream to the Chevron Phillips Chemical Company. The agreement is further evidence of the success of D-R’s long-standing relationship with ChevronTexaco. The company was one of the first to invest in D-R’s DATUM compressor technology following the introduction of the product line in 1995, and since that time they have purchased more DATUM casings than any other D-R client.  “Having an agreement such as this provides Chevron- Texaco life cycle cost reductions which are achieved through business process improvements, standardization, configuration, shorter cycles and optimum equipment selection,” said Duncan Swan, of the Dresser-Rand development team on the agreement.  Process improvements begin from the very moment ChevronTexaco decides to invest in new equipment. There is no bidding to delay the process. “We’ve gone from three bids and a cloud of dust to a working relationship where both parties end up winning,” Mander explained. “We’ve moved away from the transactional form of business.”  “The process is further enhanced by development of templates for ChevronTexaco business units, employing Dresser-Rand’s Configurator device,a computer-based remote engineering design system,” Swan said. “ChevronTexaco likes the Configurator device as it allows them to develop standard templates for equipment. Theoretically, we can go to any remote location on a Monday, and by Friday have the drawings, API data sheets, BOMs and all of the other details needed to begin compressor manufacture.”  The Configurator device allows Dresser-Rand to readily create templates to meet the needs of ChevronTexaco’s various business units. “It allows us and ChevronTexaco to achieve a standard set of specifications and scope of supply such that each installation begins to look the same,” Swan explained. “You transfer learning from project to project and you avoid non-value-added engineering. You have standard templates modified to reflect project-specific requirements. You can standardize on valves, conduits, welding specs, instrumentation and other components. This is a one-off exercise, a year later you just call up the template and make project-specific changes.” ChevronTexaco agrees. “By using the Configurator device, we have developed some site-specific templates, Mander said. We’re reducing the non-value-added processes.” The system worked well on the Benguela-Belize platform. “Benguela-Belize was the first project on which we used the preferred supplier agreement,” said Steven Nove, Dresser-Rand’s project development engineer. “It was a great example of how it’s supposed to be used.”