Refinery Operations Reviews
Refinery Operations Reviews are intended to analyze and rank the performance of the refinery in the main areas of the refinery operations and to identify and prioritize opportunities for improvement. The review will also provide a quantitative indication of the financial gains and other performance improvements that can be obtained and any cost that are associated by implementing the identified opportunities. An integrated im-plementation plan will be included in the Review Report.
The review will be conducted by a small team specialized in the main areas of refinery operations. Typically the team will consist of:
- A refinery operations management specialist (team leader)
- A refinery process technology specialist
- A QA/HSE specialist
- A Reliability/maintenance specialist
During the entire review the team will work in close cooperation with nominated and dedicated client staff with the objective to achieve a full understanding and sharing of the review and the results obtained. The Operations review will be performed in 2 stages, i.e. a preparation stage and a site visit. During the preparation stage the team will collect relevant information on subjects such as:
- Refinery Plot Plan and processing scheme
- Refinery weight balance
- Individual unit balances
- Energy consumption data
- Unit availability information
- Cost
- Manpower and Organization
- HSE performance
- Incident records
- Interfaces with other refinery departments
Based on the information received from the client the team will prepare a schedule for the site visit, a comprehensive questionnaire on the areas of the refinery operations to be reviewed and a list of refinery personnel to be interviewed. The site visit begins and ends with a joint meeting between the refinery management team and the operations review team. In the opening meeting the client team describes the refinery operations, the challenges they face and their objectives for the review outcome. The team will describe their methodology and the schedule for the interviews/discussions with refinery staff. In the closing meeting the operations review team will present their observations, conclusions and recommendations followed by a discussion with the client team. It is preferred that the close out presentation will be given by the client representatives who worked with the review team during the site visit. The duration of the site visit will vary with the size and complexity of the refinery and the depth of the interviews/discussion with refinery staff between 2 and 3 weeks. Following the site visit a comprehensive report will be prepared by the team which will include a description the methodology used during the review, the observations and recommendations, a proposed implementation plan and a quantita-tive indication of the financial benefits and cost of implementation. The final report will usually be prepared within 3 weeks after the closeout meeting of the site visit.
