Introduction to Linear Programming

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OIL REFINING IN ROMANIA PRODUCTION
OPTIMISATION TECHNIQUES TOWARDS EUROPEAN
STANDARDS
Aurelio Ferrucci PROMETHEUS SPA
Presented for financing within the frame of
co-operation law 212/92
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PROMETHEUS

• Prometheus is an independent consulting company
  specialised in the optimisation of oil refining
  operation.
• Starting from its founder experience (CEO of the
  first Italian private group), Prometheus operates
  since 1988 supporting various Italian and foreign
  refineries.
• The company is composed by two main departments
  
• Process dept process design, feasibility
  studies, unit restructuring and technical
  assistance to refinery operation.
• Software dept development of Prometheus Decision
  Support System (DSS), software tools oriented to
  the Planning and the Scheduling of Refinery
  Operation. These tools were conceived to be
  directly used by refinery Managers.

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REFINING INDUSTRY

• The oil refinery is a extremely flexible factory
  whose profitability is greatly influenced by how
  it is operated.
• Due to the high volumes of raw material
  processed, small operative changes may lead to
  high revenues.
• Technical economical simulators are applied to
  evaluate the impact of all the factors
  influencing the overall economic result of a
  refinery operation (crude oils availability and
  quality, market product demand and prices,
  process plant operating conditions, maintenance
  scheduling, energy consumption etc.).
• These tools have been widely used in the western
  refineries since the seventies, but are not yet
  commonly adopted in other developing countries.
  

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ROMANIAN REFINING INDUSTRY

• The Romanian refining system was conceived to
  satisfy the whole country demand after 1989 a
  privatisation/modernisation process was started,
  but not many of the refinery modernisation
  studied programs were transformed in real
  investments.
• Now the scheduled integration of Romania in the
  European Union compels the Country to adopt
  European production and environmental standards
• Prometheus proposed to Romanian refineries to be
  involved in its Refinery Optimisation Project,
  asking the support of Italian government within
  the frame of co-operation Law 212/92.

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OPTIMIZATION PROJECT VISION

• Frequently the changes in crude oil quality and
  products specifications causes the progressive
  modification of the oil refinery processing
  scheme with new investments.
• Financial resources necessary for important
  modernisation interventions are not easy to find.
  
• The Prometheus optimisation project is finalised
  to identify minor process changes (alternative
  operating conditions or minor investments)
  providing important economical revenues, able to
  provide the company with the resources for
  process modernisation and consequently, improved
  products quality.

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OPTIMIZATION PROJECT VISION

• In our experience, to transform the findings of
  the study into concrete results it is necessary
  to build in refinery staff a technical
  -economical mentality.
• Every operation or procedure has an economical
  impact on refinery profitability and sometimes
  profitable interventions (for instance increasing
  energy conservation) improve the environmental
  impact too.
• The development of this mentality is favoured by
  the refinery technical economical simulation
  that, considering commercial and technical
  issues, evaluates the economical impact of every
  operation.

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REFINERY OPTIMISATION PROJECT

• The project, finalised to the improvement of
  refining profitability, will produce the
  following results
• A refinery technical - economical simulation
  model
• Feasibility study findings
• Creation of a team of refinery experts trained in
  Technical Economical simulation techniques
• The following activities, developed in
  co-operation with refinery staff, are foreseen
• Construction of the Refinery LP Optimisation
  Model
• Training of the refinery staff in the use of SW
  tools
• Use of the model for the development of a
  Refinery Survey oriented to profitability
  improvements
• Check the operating conditions suggested by the
  study
• Test Runs, Unit Performance Monitoring etc.

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EGYPTIAN REFINERIES PROJECT

• From the beginning of 2002, Prometheus has
  realised with success a similar Project in
  favour of Egyptian refineries, financed in the
  frame of Law 212/92.
• The program will be completed in 2004, and
  foresees to build for each Egyptian refinery a
  refinery simulation model, staff training, a
  feasibility study reporting the improvements
  found in the study (without investments) and a
  multi refinery model for the simulation of the
  whole Egyptian system.
• Up to now the surveys on six refineries suggested
  alternative process conditions compatible with
  plant design involving a global economic
  improvement of about 90 Million USD/Year.

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EGYPTIAN REFINERIES PROJECT

• These surveys lead to the definition of a list of
  priority investments to improve the environmental
  impact of refinery operation (for example one
  profitable investment has been suggested that
  would reduce the present emissions of 80.000
  tons/year of Sulphur Dioxide in urban areas).
• The experience acquired during the Egyptian
  project was taken into account while designing
  the Romanian Project a deeper involvement of the
  refinery staff was considered fundamental for
  real profitability improvement.

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RUMANIAN PROJECT PARTNERS

• Mizar Proiect local partner interested in
  acquiring a new specific know-how in the refining
  sector
• Refineries that answered positively to our
  proposal deciding to share the project as
  partner
• Rafinaria ASTRA ROMANA Ploiesti
• Rafinaria STEAUA ROMANA Campina
• RAFO Onesti
• PETROM (state company) expressed its interest for
  some of the activities proposed but, due to the
  short time requested by project deadline could
  not share it as a partner

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RUMANIAN PROJECT DETAILS

• Time 24 month the intervention in each
  refinery should not exceed one year.
• Budget 463.472,00 Euro (79.1 Italian Side,
  20.9 Romanian Side)
• The project is considered High Priority Interest
  Project by the Romanian Ministry for European
  Integration MIE.
• The project is considered admissible to
  contribution by the Italian Ministry of
  Productive Activities in the frame of
  co-operation law 212/92 but was not financed for
  lack of funds

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DOCUMENTATION

• Some documentation is available here, please
  contact me directly or the forum organisation.
• Documentation may be requested at the following
  email addresses
• aurelio.ferrucci_at_prometh.it
• or
• info_at_prometh.it