Increased Energy Efficiency ‘Easy’ Refinery Cost Fix
The financial industry is tanking (for the moment), there is a heavy dependence on foreign crude imports, gasoline growth is becoming weaker, people aren’t traveling and consuming fuel at the same pace as years past, the future of the energy industry is significantly dependent on the new U.S. Administration and the environment’s instability is in our hands to strengthen — no pressure, and no reason to be pessimistic.
Although we received about 50 returned emails to National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) “usual suspect” attendees to whom we reached out — eager to see them again or perhaps to meet for the first time — there was still a significant crowd at the first day of this year’s event. Twenty-two companies sponsored themed hospitality suites open to all attendees and two held private invitation-only events. Some companies had live music or other forms of entertainment and all had great food and open bars. Many suites were decorated according to the particular theme, and some even had interactive video games where attendees could match wits with one another.
Yet, the absence of some company attendance was noted. One industry representative with whom I spoke said there were a number of large companies who did not send employees for reasons ranging from dealings with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, which struck the U.S. Gulf Coast last month, causing preemptive refinery shut-ins (although most are operational at this point); to “company X won’t be there, so I’m not going;” to basic travel budget cutbacks.
However, this year’s attendee number (815) was not far off from those in the past, with the exception of last year’s 979, which NPRA attributed to a high ratio of one-day registrants. Registrant numbers typically hover in the 800s, according to NPRA, which recorded 898 registrants in 2006 and 822 in 2005. Based on the trends of registration during the past few weeks, NPRA said it was expecting about 800 this year.
Despite all this as well as the fact that the industry is in turmoil and refiners are faced with a number of challenges, today’s overall message of the 2008 NPRA Q&A in Orlando, Florida, was that there is hope (short term at least). We just need to think differently.
“Refining capacity is expanding worldwide,” said NPRA keynote speaker Blake Eskew, vice president of Purvin and Gertz Inc.
Refinery projects are occurring globally, and announced crude distillation projects from now through 2016 have been divided into three categories (representing millions of barrels per day in production).
Total global crude capacity additions most likely to occur account for 4.8 million b/d; those with high probability of occurring account for 4 million b/d; and those that are speculative account for 27.6 million b/d — all for a total of 36.4 million b/d, Eskew said.
The Energy Management: Principles & Practices session was aimed to show attendees — a good portion of the turnout representing refineries — ways in which they could easily cut costs by becoming more energy efficient. A lot has to do with just being aware.
“Push energy accountability to operators,” said LyondellBasell’s Lee Wells.
The company participated in an energy study with KBC, and his final presentation slide noted the “path forward” with this study: discovery and benchmarking — modeling, gap analysis, pinch study; identifying and evaluating opportunities; rank and select these opportunities; and implement them.
LyondellBasell’s corporate goal is to have 10% savings during five years.
Automation, said Emerson Process Management’s Doug White, can help reduce energy usage by reducing costs in a number of areas. To reduce overall refinery energy costs, process energy demand and energy supply costs must be reduced. To reduce those costs, internal utility production efficiency must increase while in turn, external purchase costs should be reduced. And there you have it — overall reduced energy costs.
White noted key takeaways for control system improvements, heater controls, fractionization energy savings and site energy supply optimization.
He summarized his portion of the presentation by noting that energy is the largest controllable cost in refinery process operation and that its efficient production and use are keys to refinery profitability. White also pointed out that automation and advanced automation are keys to effective energy use and management in the refinery. And his final point: implementation of a program to save energy requires a disciplined approach to evaluation and analysis.
Fernando Oliveira with Petrobras, who discussed the company’s corporate energy management process, noted that climate change discussions are nowadays in the top agenda of petroleum companies.
It seems simple enough, in theory, that one of the easiest places to begin cutting costs is in energy use — after all, to paraphrase how one speaker today put it: there are a lot of costs that are out of our control, but the one thing we can control is energy usage.
