Petroleum Refining Technology, Operations And Economics

Petroleum Refining Technology, Operations And Economics

OBJECTIVES

• World-wide crude oil supply and demand
• Important petroleum product demand trends
• Overview of refinery process technology
• Impact of market demand and crude oil quality on refinery configuration
• Refinery/petrochemical integration
• Refinery margin calculation
• How do refiners select crude oils
• Case study of new grassroots refinery
• Options for increasing refinery profitability

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

In addition to oil refining personnel, other individuals who interact with the industry will benefit from this course. This includes accounting, finance, insurance, petrochemical producers, oil refinery suppliers, and engineers who have limited refinery experience. A technical background is not required for course participants.

COURSE OUTLINE

Crude oil
The cost of crude oil is approximately 70-80% of the cost of operating refineries. Understanding crude oil reserves and characteristics is therefore important.

• World-wide crude supply
• Future production trends
• Crude oil pricing

Petroleum products
Environmental concerns are resulting in increasingly stringent transportation fuels specifications, and this has a significant impact on refinery operations. This session will review product consumption trends and key specifications.

• Product demand trends
  • Gasoline
  • Distillate
  • Fuel oil
• Product specifications
  • Gasoline
  • Jet fuel
  • Diesel
  • Fuel oil
• Product pricing
  • Refining centers
  • Import/export parity

Crude oil quality

A discussion of crude oil composition and properties is presented in this session.

• Crude oil composition
  • Typical elemental breakdown
  • Hydrocarbon types
• Bulk crude oil properties
  • API gravity
  • Sulfur content
  • Distillation range
  • Other important properties

Refinery process technology
This is an overview of process technology, with a focus on heavy oil conversion options. The range of refinery process technology will be discussed. This session is divided into the following sections:

• Separation
  • Distillation fundamentals
  • Atmospheric distillation
  • Vacuum distillation
  • Gas plants

• Conversion Processes(Continued)
  • Fluid catalytic cracking
  • Hydrocracking
  • Delayed coking
  • Fluid coking
  • Visbreaking
  • Solvent deasphalting
  • Resid hydrocracking
• Upgrading Processes
  • Hydrotreating
  • Catalytic reforming
  • Isomerization
  • Alkylation
• Supporting Processes
  • Acid gas removal
  • Sulfur recovery
  • Hydrogen production
  • Benzene Reduction
  • Utilities and offsites
  • Product blending

The technology is described along with important feedstock characteristics and typical product yields.

Refinery types, complexity

Refineries vary in type and complexity depending on many factors such as market demand and company investment objectives.

• Refinery types
  • Topping
  • Hydroskimming
  • Cracking
  • Coking
• Nelson complexity index

Refinery margins

Refiners use several types of refinery margins to describe their profitability. Each of these margins is described and how each is applied.

• Gross
• Variable
• Net
• Incremental

Refinery Planning and Economics

This session will begin with an overview of refinery economics modeling which involves the linear programming technique. Refinery planning applications are then discussed in detail.

• Crude oil assays
• Linear programming overview
• Refinery Modeling
• Planning applications
  • Crude oil evaluation
  • Production planning
  • Product blending
  • Shutdown planning
  • Configuration studies
  • Technology evaluation

Best practices regarding model building, crude oil evaluation, and other key economic planning applications are also discussed.

Refinery project economics

A case study for a new refinery project is presented.

• Configuration study
• Utility balance
• Capital cost
• Operating cost
  • Fixed
  • Variable
• Yearly cash flow projection
• Discounted rate of return