Course Overview

What does petroleum refining refer to? Petroleum refining refers to all those chemical engineering processes that are undertaken in refineries to convert crude oil to various finished products. Refineries are generally large industrial complexes with multiple units and facilities.

Each refinery has its unique layout and facilities depending on refinery location, desired products, etc. The petroleum refining process broadly consists of three processes, namely separation, conversion and treatment.

Production planning involves breaking down these processes into individual operations and determining and defining a standard sequence of events that would deliver a finished product. Scheduling involves factoring of time and due dates to add chronological order to the plan for specificity. Through planning and scheduling, the optimal yield is obtained from refineries.

This Zoe training course will empower you with a comprehensive understanding of petroleum refining, including important aspects of production planning, scheduling and yield optimisation.

The exposure gained with regard to these areas will enable you to successfully oversee and drive petroleum refining processes for your organisation, thereby providing you with the platform and potential to demonstrate talent and skill and inviting further opportunities for growth within your organisation.

Course Objectives

The primary objective of this training course is to empower professionals with—

• detailed understanding and knowledge of petroleum refining, specifically production planning, scheduling and yield optimisation
• the exposure to advanced techniques and methods to enhance the efficiency and quality of operations, making processes leaner and faster
• the potential and understanding to identify gaps and resolve them to save unnecessary loss of time or unnecessary costs to the organisation, thus promoting organisational growth and development
• the knowledge and experience to mentor other professionals on best practices related to production planning, scheduling and yield optimisation
• the capabilities to contribute to maximum yield optimisation, thereby attracting investors and building credibility and financial stability of the organisation
• the required skill and capabilities to work with various software and programs to automate record-keeping and data processing for faster and easier retrieval and more accurate tracking
• the overall skill set and capabilities to effectively handle complex refining processes for any organisation, thus increasing scope for progression and growth beyond one’s organisation
• the strategic and analytical skills to most appropriately predict risks and challenges and set plans to overcome these for maximum impact

Training Methodology

Training courses at Zoe Talent Solutions are extremely customisable for any training audience. Before the commencement of each training course, the content is thoroughly reviewed to check the relevance and make changes, if any. Lectures are delivered by highly experienced professionals, using detailed audio-visual presentations.

Trainees are encouraged to participate in the training through group activities and projects. They are also welcomed to share related experiences and issues faced in their daily workplace, which are then discussed in detail by the trainer.

The above unique format of training was conceptualised by Zoe Talent Solutions and is used for all its courses. It is called the Do–Review–Learn–Apply Model.

Organisational Benefits

By professionals enrolling for this training course, organisations will derive the following benefits:

• More efficient and seamless petroleum refining, including planning, scheduling and yield optimisation
• Advanced techniques and methods adapted through the refining process for increased efficiency and quality
• Regular training and mentoring of other employees to adopt best practices in refining operations
• Application of software and other programs for effective data tracking and retrieval
• Effective cost management, with the elimination of redundant processes, systems and expenses
• Increased credibility and thus greater investments
• Organisational growth and development because of increased credibility and financial stability
• Effective risk assessment and management to prevent grave impact on the business
• Greater automation and leaner operations, implying potential to expand operations in terms of number and scale

Personal Benefits

Professionals enrolling for this training course will derive the following benefits:

• Detailed knowledge and understanding of petroleum refining, including production planning, scheduling and yield optimisation
• Enhanced experience and knowledge of advanced systems and processes for increasing the overall efficiency and quality of the refining process
• Increased skill and experience to mentor other professionals regarding best practices related to petroleum refining
• Greater awareness and foresight to predict challenges and risks and address them to minimise or nullify impact to the business
• Increased analytical and strategic skills to check current financial transactions of the organisation and make changes to save resources and reduce expenditures
• Greater understanding and experience to build organisational credibility to invite more investors and contribute to organisational growth and development
• Enhanced skillset and capabilities to independently and effectively drive all complex processes of petroleum refining for any organisation, thereby increasing avenues for growth and progression
• Increased skill and confidence to introduce software and other programs for data tracking and retrieval

Who Should Attend?

• Senior management of an organisation who need to thoroughly understand the entire process of petroleum refining
• All professionals undertaking functions in production planning and scheduling
• Managers and supervisors overseeing planning and scheduling operations
• Personnel involved in other core operations across the petroleum supply chain
• Managers, leads and members of other teams related to and playing a key role in enhancing the petroleum refining process
• Finance advisors who should be aware of necessary and unnecessary costs
• Internal and external auditors as well as quality checkers responsible for adherence to standards throughout
• Law officials responsible for ensuring that laws of the land are respected and adhered to
• Vendors concerned with some stage of the refining process
• Potential investors interested in knowing the prospect of a business before making investments
• Any other professional who would like to know more about petroleum refining

Course Outline

The course covers the following areas for effectively understanding petroleum refining, including production planning, scheduling and yield optimisation:

Module 1 – Three Stages of Oil Refining

• Separation
• Conversion
• Treatment

Module 2 – Components of Refineries

• Upstream components
• Process units
• Support components
• Interdependencies
• Downstream components
• Storage

Module 3 – Processing Units in Refineries

• Crude oil distillation unit
• Vacuum distillation unit
• Naphtha hydrotreater unit
• Catalytic reforming unit
• Alkylation unit
• Isomerisation unit
• Distillate hydrotreater unit
• Mercaptan oxidiser
• Amine gas treater
• Fluid catalytic cracking unit
• Hydrocracker unit
• Delayed coking and fluid coking units

Module 4 – Primary End-Products of Petroleum Refinement

• Light distillates
• Middle distillates
• Heavy distillates
• Others

 Module 5 – Components of Production Planning and Scheduling

• Demand forecasting
• Enterprise production planning and scheduling module
• Block scheduling
• Trim optimisation module

Module 6 – Factors Affecting Production Planning and Scheduling

• Optimisation
• Operations research
• Inhouse technology development
• Human factor

Module 7 – Aspects of Product Scheduling

• Primary unit throughputs, feedstock, product prices, production targets
• Output crude schedule
• Grade-wise product dispatch schedule

Module 8 – Types of Product Scheduling

• Dock scheduling
• Feedstock scheduling
• Process unit scheduling
• Product blending and scheduling
• Product distribution

Module 9 – Refinery Economics

• Residue reduction
• Asphalt and residual fuel
• Refinery complexity and netback
• Economic evaluation
• Cost estimation
• Case studies
• Group discussions
• Program evaluation and summary