Project Management
Use discrete event simulation as decision support for storage and shipping—Part 1
Over the past decades, one engineering firm has been using discrete event simulation (DES) to study shipping and storage as an integral part of project execution throughout all phases of a process facility’s design, construction and operations.
Innovations
Pepperl+Fuchs’ VisuNet RM Shell 4.0 remote monitor firmware for industrial thin client work stations offers significant enhancements through an optimized touchscreen user interface, advanced security features, Windows Embedded Standard 7 and plug-and-play startup capabilities.
People
The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Aberdeen Section board has elected Ian Phillips, chief executive of the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC), as its new chairman.
BASF picks Jacobs as global engineering partner
Under a three-year contract, Jacobs is providing engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) and integrated project management services to BASF for global projects.
Wood Group buys downstream contractor Infinity
Texas-based Infinity provides a range of services including mechanical construction, fabrication, project management, turnarounds, maintenance services, heavy civil works, site preparation, and electrical and instrumentation services. The existing management team will continue to lead the business.
HP Automation Strategies: A portfolio approach to operations IT solutions management
The need for more automated and efficient operations has led end users to accumulate large and increasingly complex collections of operations-related information technology (IT) solutions.
HP Global: Forthcoming tax hike could hamper Russian refining
Russia plans to increase the volume of oil it refined this year, despite Western sanctions and the ever-deteriorating business environment, according to an official spokesperson for Alexander Novak, Russia’s minister of energy.
HP People
Michael D. Scott has been named an International Society of Automation (ISA) Fellow, a distinguished grade that is granted to ISA senior members in recognition of outstanding achievements in scientific or engineering fields.
Chevron’s El Segundo refinery wins award for coke drum reliability project
Under the awarded project, Fluor has replaced six coke drums and incorporated seismic upgrades to the coker structure at Chevron’s 269,000-bpd El Segundo site in California.
Improve plant operations with enterprise technology
In early 2009, the author was asked a rhetorical question by a senior executive with a major international oil company: “How do you run a business when your product unit price rises from $60/bbl to $140/bbl in the space of 14 months, and then drops to $40/bbl in less than six months?”
- Ineos to invest £150 MM at Grangemouth site 12/17
- KBR’s methanol technology selected by Fikrat Al-Tadweer for the first biomethanol plant in Saudi Arabia 12/17
- Digital Exclusive: Root cause analysis on hydrochloric acid corrosion in a diesel hydrotreater unit 12/16
- Digital Feature: Enabling growth through strategic cost optimization for petrochemical and refining companies 12/16
- Rohm awards NextChem feasibility study for PMMA-polymer chemical recycling plant project 12/16
- Westlake to rationalize certain North American chlorovinyl and styrene assets 12/16

