Economics–Refinery planning, economics and handling new projects

This chapter is divided into three parts. The first deals with the planning of a refinery’s operation, which includes its optimized crude runs, product slate, and any process expansion or debottlenecking that may be required to meet this optimized operation. The second part deals with the process economic evaluation of a proposed newrefinery or new facilities within an existing refinery. The third part is a brief description and discussion of a refining company’s participation in the execution of an approved engineering and construction project.

This second part of the chapter is closely related to the first part in so far that process studies and the ultimate selection of any process or processing route is based on the approved marketing strategy for the refining company. This in turn is based on the conclusions following the work undertaken in Part 1. The final phase in this refinery operation is described in Part 3. This outlines the preparation of contracts to third parties for the installation of new or expanded facilities. It includes the choice of the type of contract to be solicited and follows with the selection of a suitable engineering company to execute the work. Finally, it discusses the company’s activities associated with the execution of the project by contractors and the subsequent commissioning and acceptance of the completed facilities.