The TIMEC name has decades-long recognition for outstanding, quality service and impeccable safety. Founded in 1971, TIMEC has served the U.S. oil and gas industry for nearly 50 years, providing maintenance services at industrial facilities during shutdowns and turnarounds. It has included historical brands such as World Wide Welding, James TIMEC Catalyst and WellTech Safety. TIMEC is a leading provider of turnaround service offerings, including mechanical, specialty welding and capital services. Currently, TIMEC is a full double-breasted contractor able to execute both union and merit-shop work efficiently, safely and with exceptional quality. The company's specialty services division, TIMEC Specialty Services, performs specialty welding, high-temperature repairs and inspection (HRI), and upstream field services.
TIMEC transitioned its operations in California to a building and construction trades contracting service in December 2017 in response to changes in that market and continues to maintain a leading position in California as a turnkey, full-service general contractor operating as T.R.S.C Inc. TIMEC's nonunion downstream mechanical business operates across the Pacific Northwest, Mid- Continent, Rocky Mountains and Gulf Coast regions. Its oil and gas operational headquarters is currently located in La Porte, Texas, but will relocate to a new facility in Pasadena, Texas, later this year. This move will allow TIMEC to expand its current fabrication capabilities.
Everything TIMEC does as a company is built around its core value of safety. Values at the company do not change, and safety is embedded into everything everyone does there. This is significant since its typical project workscopes as a general contractor can include work on all major process units, from FCCs, hydrocrackers, hydrogen plants and alkylation units to cokers, crude units, reformers and sulphur units, and across the full spectrum of mechanical and welding work scopes.
David Hopkins, vice president of HS&E for TIMEC Oil & Gas, explained why safety is such a vital factor for TIMEC. "We all have friends and family who work in the industry," Hopkins said. "For me, it's always been a personal issue to make sure that those people come home safely. I've made a career out of doing that."
Speaking of the excellent, safety-driven employees at TIMEC, Hopkins continued, "They want to do the right thing: be productive, safe and do a good job, whatever that means to them. It's fairly easy to assure them that if they work safe, they're going to go home safe and have a better quality of life."
TIMEC Downstream President Hari Gopu agreed, adding, "As an employer, it's vital we not only look after every employee from a safety perspective, but that people know their employer is genuinely committed to all aspects of their welfare."
Since safety and quality are highly valued at TIMEC, these values shine through in the company's continued achievements and industry reputation. TIMEC continually boasts best-in-class safety performance each year.
"We are proud of our track record in delivering projects safely, on time, on budget and with exceptional quality," Gopu said. "For example, we are over five years leak-free on startup on well over 150,000 mechanical connections."
He explained TIMEC has also maintained very low weld rejection rates (under 2.5 percent) consistently for over 10 years and has invested heavily in the quality control space with innovative tools and practices, such as its in-house proprietary maintenance and turnaround/project platform, MainT/Ain. MainT/Ain was developed by TIMEC's own project teams and is used to make TIMEC altogether safer and more efficient.
Recognizing best-in-class safety
In May, TIMEC was selected as the Pegasus Cup Winner at the ExxonMobil Joliet, Illinois, Refinery. The Pegasus Cup is awarded to companies that meet or exceed commitments to quality and safety. Gopu, President of TIMEC Specialty Services Jeff Wood and Turnaround Manager Chris Brown were present to accept the Pegasus Cup.
At the Joliet Refinery, TIMEC completed the following:
- Worked over 100,000 safe man-hours
- 100-percent attendance and participation at safety alignment meetings
- A proactive approach to safety and execution
- A teaching approach to ExxonMobil's Loss Prevention Self-Assessment (LPSA) tool that used the game Jenga to demonstrate what can happen if you don't assess the risk to your task before you execute
- Developing a job aid tool as a team to help safety attendants understand their duties, which was adopted by additional contractors working the turnaround
- Flawless execution of key/critical work tasks with no major incidents
For the second time in three years, LyondellBasell awarded TIMEC its Goal ZERO Bright Star Award. TIMEC recently received the honor for completing the 2018 calendar year with zero recordable injuries at all of its LyondellBasell job sites. TIMEC was one of 25 contractors that received the prestigious 2018 safety award.
In 2018, TIMEC employees worked jobs across three LyondellBasell Texas facilities -- La Porte, Bayport and Chocolate Bayou -- and recently completed a plantwide turnaround as general contractor at Matagorda this past February.
Since the start of 2019, TIMEC has received multiple Take 5 recognitions from the Chevron Richmond, California, Refinery. In January, TIMEC's On the Run (OTR) group received a Take 5 for utilizing their Stop Work Authority on a job when a problem was discovered. The TIMEC team received another Take 5 for its tireless work in February assisting Chevron after an emergency plantwide outage. The outage event was completed as if it were planned, and TIMEC was again given the Take 5 honor.
Another honor recently bestowed on TIMEC was for employee Ken Green, who was recognized by Chevron for an impressive audit with a helicopter ride around the Chevron Richmond facility and San Francisco Bay Area. During the audit, Green's job hazard analysis was reviewed. The safety person, along with the others involved in the audit, were so impressed with Green's performance and diligence they offered him a helicopter ride, a special reward granted to contractors who go above and beyond their day-to-day duties in the tank farm area.
"It is an honor to have endorsements from our core clients and the industry in general," Gopu said. "We know our clients share our values on health and safety and set extremely high standards in this area. At the end of the day, the greatest recognition or reward we can have as a business is to know every employee comes to work and goes home safely."
Dedicated to its people
As a company, TIMEC recognizes the people who make up the business are integral, so it continually invests in bettering its team. Transparent communications, behavior-based safety programs and education are among the ways TIMEC invests in its people.
"Without our employees, we cannot perform the services we provide," said Gopu, who has been with the company for seven years. "We continuously invest in our employees, whether that is safety, training, development or future opportunities. Many of our team members have been with TIMEC for several years and have made significant contributions that have paved the way for those who follow; there have been some challenging times and a lot of us would not be here without this contribution, commitment and dedication, so we are grateful for that.
"We want to see people stay with the business and grow, and that can only happen if we show our employees we care about them and are truly committed to ensuring they are safe. It's one thing to say it; it's far more important this is demonstrated daily and across all levels."
For more information, visit www.TIMEC.com or call (800) 303-0050.
Ken Green, left, was recognized by the Chevron Richmond, California, facility with a helicopter ride for an impressive audit performance.
