News

MTN to Present at 2015 AFPM Annual Meeting, March 22-24, 2015, at the Marriott River Center, San Antonio, TX

AM-15-60, “Closing the GAP: Bringing Financial Clarity to Operational Decision Making”,

S. Treiber, R. McLeod, B. Black, MTN and Cliff Pedersen, PEXI Inc., AFPM Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Tx, March 22-24, 2015

 

Most refiners have a business process that attempts to close the GAP between planned and actually achieved profit (PvA).  Despite these efforts it is common for there to be a GAP of more than $1/barrel of crude feedstock even after discounting for the effects of unplanned operational disruptions.

We have found that most of the GAP is caused by a failure to integrate on-line optimization solutions and work processes of advanced process control and unit real-time optimization(APC/RTO) with off-line refinery-wide optimization solutions and work processes of planning and scheduling.  This failure is one reason why most refiners have concluded that unit real-time optimization with rigorous chemical engineering models is not worth the trouble to implement.

This paper discusses the results of implementing software tools that support a new business process for real-time optimization of refinery operations.  These new patented technologies provide a calculation of profitability that forecasts the Plan vs. Actual GAP, an integrated presentation of planning, scheduling and operating data in real-time that enables a collaborative business process for refinery economic optimization by the refinery management team that meets every morning, and optionally, a refinery-wide, chemical engineering model based, real-time optimization solution that can be operated in closed loop.