Exploration • Drilling • Field Services
for difficult and complex crudes, such as heavy and dirty oils. Overall, integrated process engineering software provides faster, more accurate and frequent analysis to achieve refinery profitability.
Analysis and accuracy A crude oil assay, the laboratory profile of candidate crude properties, is the unique fingerprint and basis for understanding how a crude feedstock will perform in a refinery configuration. Assay data helps engineers and planners determine for particular crudes (or more typical mix of crudes), whether that oil feedstock is compatible with a particular petroleum refinery train or whether the new candidate crude itself might trigger issues reducing yield and quality or restricting product mix flexibility in that facility. Refiners continually seek to speed up
and improve feedstock purchase decision- making ability through new techniques and technology to analyse their options rapidly when giving instructions to traders. While finished product demand is weak in some regions, crude costs remain high, putting downward pressure on margins and if the crudes available for purchase are heavier, it presents processing and environmental challenges. As crude production declines in established producing areas such as the North Sea, refiners are now forced to consider new sources discovered in the last few years to replace existing declining sources. Today, the market is experiencing shifts in the composition of incoming crude, which creates challenges and opportunities. For Middle East petrochemical producers, strategic priorities are changing as regional feedstocks are increasingly consumed domestically, so creating added value products is now a clear business strategy. As these organisations integrate their operations to move downstream in the value chain, operational decisions become more complex against a backdrop of market uncertainty and shifting sources. Also, with the increased supply of shale gas and corresponding lower gas prices in
North America, the USA’s petrochemical producers are gaining a competitive advantage in the global market, shifting purchase and sale strategies. Companies across the globe are experiencing a new era of expanded feedstocks and commercialisation. Tere are several key trends in application and use of software modelling tools in this new environment. First, rigorous engineering simulation models have become extremely important in understanding how to best operate a facility across the dimensions of flexibility, yield, quality and energy. Companies are increasingly employing engineering models, calibrated against current plant conditions, for tuning, decision-making, evaluating feedstock and product options. At the same time, planning software is being increasingly used to evaluate both crudes and petrochemical feedstocks faster. Producers have started to take advantage of the engineering models to more accurately and frequently update the planning models, increasing planning validity and accuracy. Models are dependent on the accuracy of the hydrocarbon characterisations, so companies need powerful process engineering tools that can characterise crudes, analyse multiple feedstocks, track petroleum properties and carbon emissions and leverage activated energy and economics for optimal operations. Advances in the ability to accurately characterise crudes from limited assay data is one of the most important areas of software innovation. With today’s sophisticated software, it is easy to update refinery planning and scheduling. Aspen HYSYS Petroleum Refining (an engineering simulation system) includes tools to easily import and export petroleum assays to and from Aspen PIMS (a refinery planning system) with the new Aspen Assay Management. Companies can also automate the export of rigorous reactor models to Aspen PIMS. Tis improves planning software accuracy, leading to better and more profitable refinery feedstock selection. l
Ron Beck is director for Engineering and Caleigh Holden and Vince Ye are product managers, Refining at AspenTech. The company is based in Reading, Berkshire, UK.
www.aspentech.com
www.engineerlive.com 29
Many companies see significant benefits with the adoption of process modelling software. For example, Saudi Aramco E&P increased throughput by 3-8%, reduced planning time by 50-70%, reduced inventory by 15-35% and made 3-5% energy savings by integrating Aspen HYSYS and Aspen PIMS across all major surface facilities. S-Oil has seen its energy loads reduce by over 100MW per year, saving over US$39 million.
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