Refinery Complexity Talks

This morning’s webinar on the Worldwide Refinery Survey with Complexity Analysis with Daniel Johnston was a great success.  Thank you to everyone who attended.  Just in case you didn’t catch it this morning, never fear!  I recorded it.  You can view the recording here.  There’s even a discount code for PennEnergy Research‘s refining products included at the end.

Daniel did a fantastic job, and we got some great questions from the audience.  Find out information about how it all started, primary reasons to use the refinery complexity analysis, and how it all comes together.  If you view and have questions, just let me know, and I’ll suss out the answers for you.  After the webinar, if you want a copy of the slide deck, I can hook you up there as well.  Just email me at jthompson@pennwell.com.

Related articles

• Worldwide Refinery Survey with Complexity Analysis Webinar

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Preparing for The Big Crew Change

The Big Crew Change has been a topic of conversation for…a while.  As the energy sector’s workforce gets closer to retirement, the discussion centers around ramping up recruiting efforts to enhance the workforce.  What about all the information and experience that is the current workforce’s legacy?  How do we pass that on to the incoming workforce?

PennEnergy suggests that site licenses from well-known industry publications may be a solution.  The Oil & Gas Journal is one such publication.  It has extensive history, horizontal content, accessible archives, and wide readership. (Bonus: I know a lot about this one because I work with their site license program.)

The Oil & Gas Journal’s first issue was released in 1902, and it has remained a leader in the industry.

Oil & Gas Journal presents news and technical articles and statistics about a specific, vitally important business to professional workers in that business.  It selects articles and facts within articles carefully in service to one standard: usefulness to the target audience.  It anticipates readers’ questions about the subjects and events it covers and pursues and reports answers, in as much operational detail as possible – Oil & Gas Journal Media Kit 2014

The weekly issues cover the depth and breadth of the oil & gas industry with content that appeals to a broad spectrum of oil & gas professionals across the globe. A Signet Ad Study done by the Oil & Gas Journal in July 2013 confirmed their readers include professionals from the following industries:

• Production
• Exploration
• Drilling
• Financial/Business
• Gas Processing
• Pipeline/Transportation
• Refining
• Petrochemical

For all of its extensive history, OGJ has adapted with the times.  Oil & Gas Journal is published 4-5 times monthly, and each issue is an interactive, online magazines delivered via email.  However, they haven’t abandoned the rich tradition of the print publication.  Each month there is a print magazine released, in addition to the digital edition,that is, on average, around 140 pages.  However the reader prefers to read their industry news, OGJ is ready to provide.  They even have mobile apps available.

As the current workforce gets closer to retirement, preserving and passing on that information and experience is vital, because while much about the oil & gas industry improves and changes, there is much that stays the same as well.  More than 100 years of covering the oil & gas industry’s news in technology, policy, and comprehensive statistical information, OGJ offers a legacy of rich information the incoming work force will need during this Big Crew Change.

A benefit of the site license program is that it offers their wealth of knowledge through easily accessible archives.  As of today, the magazine has digitized the content back to 1990.  Okay, so let’s do a little math (don’t worry, I used a calculator).  That’s 24 years of issues that are archived and available at the end of 2014.  That would be 1,248 issues of the Oil & Gas Journal are at the fingertips of every site license client.  All the technical information, statistics, surveys, and special reports are right there.

The special reports and features are chosen with great thought each quarter to ensure they are applicable to what is happening right now in the industry.  Some of those features include the Worldwide Refinery Survey, Worldwide Construction Projects, and US Pipeline Economics Study.  Industry experts and editors of the Oil & Gas Journal have contributed to PennEnergy Research’s webinar content.  Sr. Pipeline Editor Christ Smith spoke at a webinar with PennEnergy Research in September and Daniel Johnston who compiles the Complexity Analysis that goes with the refinery survey will be contributing to a webinar on January 28th.

Each site license client’s site license is customized to their needs, and can even include statistical tables and research from PennEnergy Research in addition to the content from the Oil & Gas Journal.  With a current client list of 42 companies including majors, super-majors, and national oil companies, the site license program has become a go-to resource for industry leaders.

Don’t just take my word for it, the Oil & Gas Journal is recognized by B-to-B Magazine as one of the Media Power 50.

Oil & Gas Journal assumes a leadership role within the oil and gas publishing arena through dominance in digital advancement.  It is with great confidence that the OGJ brand continually excels at extending media vehicles not only for readers, but also for advertisers to reach and target global audiences.

For this reason, OGJ received recognition in B-to-B Magazine as one of the Media Power 50 in May 2013.  OGJ is also the only publication within the oil and gas industry to gas such accreditation in 2013. – Oil & gas Journal Media Kit 2014

How does your company plan to handle the Big Crew Change?  Where do you get your industry information?

‘Til next time,

Jessica

 

Worldwide Refinery Survey with Complexity Analysis Webinar

The Oil & Gas Journal, an organization I work for, does an annual survey of all the refineries in the world.  It contains lots of data, I’ve listed all the data fields below.  As popular as this survey has always been, PennEnergy Research decided to take it a step further and included the Complexity Analysis, and Daniel Johnston and I are doing a webinar about it on January 28th, 10:00AM CST.  This takes the Nelson Refinery Complexity Index, which is information on construction costs, product slate, replacement values, etc.  Okay, so that doesn’t begin to cover it, so here’s the summary information.

The Worldwide Refinery Survey and Complexity Analysis combines the 2014 Worldwide Refinery Survey with the Nelson Refinery Complexity Index. The Nelson Refinery Complexity Index is a cost-based index. The index provides insight into such things as refinery construction costs, replacement value, conversion capability and product slate.

The Nelson and the Equivalent indices have been improved and upgraded based on the author Daniel Johnston’s extensive research, analysis and discussions with those in the industry. Specifics are detailed in the documents enclosed with the spreadsheets. Other criteria that make an index practical include; consistency, repeatability, compatibility with the available data, and easiness to understand and access.

Both the Nelson Complexity Index (NCI) and Equivalent Distillation Capacity (EDC) are included and calculated into the regular Refinery survey spreadsheet. The Nelson Complexity Index is a pure cost-based index. It provides a relative measure of refinery construction costs based upon the distillation and upgrading capacity a refinery has. The index was developed by Wilbur L. Nelson in the 1960s to quantify the relative cost of the components that make up a refinery. The Nelson index compares the costs of various upgrading units such as a catalytic cracker, or a reformer to the cost of a crude distillation unit. NCI and EDC statistics have become widely used in industry literature to provide insight into various aspects of refinery value or operations.

For the third year in a row, the Bottom of Barrel Index is also included. The BoB index provides a means of quantifying and characterizing a refinery’s ability to process heavy crudes and produce premium refined products. It represents the combined capacity of a refineries Coking, Catalytic Cracking and Hydrocracking units relative to Distillation Capacity (expressed as a percentage). US average BoB Index is 55% (1/1/2011) Rest of the World average is 21% (excluding the US). Total World average is 28%.

Additionally the survey includes ownership percentages. Listed are the individual or multiple owners and their percentages.

So, every year I get a ton of questions on this survey and the information in the complexity analysis, and I always do my best to find the answers…Because, I don’t have all the answers.  This year, I decided to get their answers about the Complexity Analysis from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.  Daniel Johnston is incredibly knowledgeable and a great speaker.   He has added real value to the responses the Oil & Gas Journal receives from the refineries, so that the user gets information on stuff like construction costs and product slates.  This is going to be the first webinar Daniel and I will do together.  (Well, I say “together”…basically I do the introduction, closing and ask the questions and he says all the important stuff.)  I’m really excited about this upcoming webinar.  If you want to check it out or if you know someone who might want to check it out, you can register here.  There’s no cost, and this will be recorded.  So if you aren’t sure if you can be there on January 28th at 10:00AM CST, register anyway.  I’ll email you a link to the recording when everything is said and done.

Data fields for the Worldwide Refinery Survey:

• Distillation Capacity
• Vacuum Distillation
• Thermal Processes
• Coking
• Catalytic Cracking
• Catalytic Reforming
• Catalytic Hydrocracking
• Catalytic Hydrorefining
• Catalytic Hydrotreating
• Alkylation
• Polemerization
• Aromatics
• Isomerization
• Lubes
• Asphalt
• Hydrogen (MCFD)
• Oxygenates
• Sulfur Extraction
• Ownership Percentage

‘Til next time,

Jessica

 

For All of Us Who Told Our Parents Video Games Were Not A Waste of Time

Image via CrunchBase

Anybody out there every play pong?  I bet those guys never dreamed that a video game would develop into what we see today.  Even when Nintendo first released Super Mario Brothers, who would have thought that gaming technology would impact so many industries?  In conversations I’ve had with several people in the energy industry over the last few months, gaming technology has come up.  This isn’t the have-you-played-the-new-Black-Ops kind of discussion either.  (Although, that comes up from time to time too.)  In the oil & gas space it has been about integrated operations, and that has inevitably led in to the topic of how many aerospace companies are crossing over into O&G these days.  It also put me in mind of a webcast  from a few months ago that is still available to view.  Really fascinating stuff!

Use of Gaming Technology and 3D Humans to Manage Worker Exposure to Radiation at Nuclear Plants

Utility workers at nuclear facilities are exposed to radiation that must be kept below certain levels to be considered safe. ALARA, an acronym for “As Low As Reasonable Achievable,” is a principle set forth by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that gives employers an absolute duty to ensure the safety and health of workers in every aspect related to the work in radioactive environments.

During this session, Siemens PLM Software and Microsoft will examine the unique challenges utilities face when training for and planning ALARA human work processes. A special guest speaker from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will talk about the ground breaking work they did to create an algorithm to estimate radiological dosage in nuclear plants. Siemens PLM Software and Microsoft will discuss commercial off the shelf software available today to help utilities improve employee health and safety programs by utilizing advanced IT tools for ALARA planning, while also improving work efficiency in the plant. Demonstrations will include Siemens PLM Software’s work planning application Tecnomatix with “Jack and Jill”, the virtual humans and the Kinect for Windows system.

You may have noticed that I get a kick out of the new technology that shows up…everywhere.  If you know of something new that you want to tell me about, drop a comment!  Commenting not your thing?  No biggie, email me, ilovegeekology101@gmail.com.

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 I’d love to hear about it!

‘Til next time,

Jessica