MCOR (Manage, Control, Optimize, Reconcile)) is a comprehensive strategy developed by OMS eLearning Academy that aims to optimize downstream refining operations for maximum profitability and efficiency. It involves a multi-pronged approach focusing on:

1. Throughput Maximization,
2. Yield Optimization:
3. Energy Efficiency:
4. Inventory Management
5. Supply Chain Optimization:
6. Data Analytics and Decision-Making
7. Continuous Improvement

MCOR is not a one-time initiative but rather an ongoing continuous improvement process. Regular assessment and adaptation of the strategy are essential to ensure it remains aligned with changing market conditions, technological advancements, and regulatory requirements.

Refineries are designed to process a specific type of crude, which has been possible with a constant supply of crude with the desired quality. However, the situation has changed over the last few decades as the sources are depleted with constant crude quality. As a result, refineries switched to crude Blending to feed their distillation unit with desired crude specs. This paper discusses all aspects of the crude blending concept, economics, and control system.

Butane is used in LPG blending for home fuels. However, there is another incentive of butane disposition, and that is to blend in the gasoline pool. This route is considered because butane increases the Reid Vapor pressure of the gasoline more economically than expensive gasoline components. This paper discusses the economic disposition of butane LPG versus gasoline and all other aspects of butane blending control.

Continuing education is an essential part of professional development in any field. Sometimes, updating or upgrading one''''s skills to continue in the profession may be mandatory. However, as working from home and changing jobs is becoming a common phenomenon in the industry, skilled professionals are becoming a scarer. One underlying factor of the lack of available training is the corporate''''s commitment to providing adequate and timely training to motivate their staff. This article discusses the rising mode of online learning as it is available anytime, anywhere, and on any device for downstream refining professionals.

A typical refinery produces about 75-80% of its crude throughput and produces its fuel products (gasoline, diesel, LPG, fuel oil) by blending 10-12 refinery products, which vary in both quality and monetary value. These fuel products have stringent specifications to meet, and refineries use automated fuel blending control systems to optimize and control their properties. Any shortfalls in the delivered product specs, delays, and quality giveaways severely affect the enterprise''''s bottom line. Therefore, refinery management always looks for ways to identify and correct and enhance the shortcomings of their fuel blending systems. This paper discusses a methodology to benchmark the state of fuel blending systems in a refinery to compare with other refineries by using two indices, Automation Effectiveness (AE) and Operational Efficiency (OE). These two indices also gauge the budgetary investment required to convert a manual system to an automated system or upgrade an automated system to a state-of-the-art blending control system.

The process industries, encompassing chemical, oil & gas, and other sectors, are undergoing a significant transformation driven by digital technologies. This digital transformation brings many benefits across various aspects of their operations, leading to increased efficiency, improved safety, enhanced sustainability, and greater resilience. Let's delve into some key benefits: 1. Increased Efficiency and Productivity; 2. Enhanced Safety and Risk Management: Improved Sustainability and Environmental Impact: Greater Agility and Resilience: Innovation and New Business Models: Digital transformation is not just an option but a necessity for process industries to remain competitive and thrive in the future. By embracing these technologies and their benefits, companies can unlock unprecedented efficiency, safety, sustainability, and innovation, shaping a future-proof and prosperous industry.

A typical refinery produces about 75-80% of its crude throughput and produces its fuel products (gasoline, diesel, LPG, fuel oil) by blending 10-12 refinery products, which vary in both quality and monetary value. These fuel products have stringent specifications to meet, and refineries use automated fuel blending control systems to optimize and control their properties. Any shortfalls in the delivered product specs, delays, and quality giveaways severely affect the enterprise''''s bottom line. Therefore, refinery management always looks for ways to identify and correct and enhance the shortcomings of their fuel blending systems. This paper discusses a methodology to benchmark the state of fuel blending systems in a refinery to compare with other refineries by using two indices, Automation Effectiveness (AE) and Operational Efficiency (OE.). These two indices also gauge the budgetary investment required to convert a manual system to an automated system or upgrade n automated system to a state-of-the-art blending control system.

The collaboration of data and processes for refinery offsite operations is critical to achieving efficiency, safety, and profitability. This interconnectedness plays a vital role in various areas, including process optimization, safety, Risk management, enhanced operational efficiency, Integration and technology, Challenges and considerations. Effective collaboration of data and processes transforms refinery offsite operations, leading to significant efficiency, safety, and profitability improvements. Refineries can unlock the full potential of this powerful synergy by embracing new technologies and addressing challenges.

Benchmarking the state of a refinery's fuel blending system is crucial for optimizing efficiency, minimizing costs, and ensuring product quality. Here's a comprehensive guide to approaching this in these steps: 1. Define Goals: 2. Data Gathering 3: comparison and Analysis. By following these steps and utilizing the provided resources, you can effectively benchmark your refinery's fuel blending system and gain valuable insights for improvement.

This paper discusses the design of a fuel blending header for an in-line blending system. It is very important to design the header for a fully developed and well-mixed flow from the components tanks to the header and then from the header to the final product tank. Most importantly, a methodology is suggested to establish the order of component connection points at the header as they are affected by the component properties, such as flow regime, density, and vapor pressure. This paper takes the myth out of that “blend header is just a piece of pipe.

This paper discusses the fuels blending technology, management of a blending project, and many essential topics like linear and non-linear blend models, methods to handle blend non-linearity, recipe optimization concepts, blend planning process, etc., in a refinery. After the fundamental concepts are reviewed, the chapter discusses the design aspects of a blending project for the automation of field equipment and instrumentation, hardware and software, and measurement of the qualities of the blending tanks. Finally, the chapter concludes with methodologies to evaluate the current state of the blending state and the successful implementation of upgrades of a blending system. The methodology for the benchmarking defines two indices for the automation effectiveness and efficiency of execution to compare a refinery''''s fuel blending system with enterprise refineries or external refineries worldwide.

Tanks store feedstocks'''' intermediate and final products in any liquid-based manufacturing unit, such as a refinery or chemical facility. Knowing tank contents in quantity and quality is essential, allowing business and operational decisions to be made promptly, thus minimizing bottom-line impact. While real-time tank inventory can be obtained online with an automatic tank-gauging system, it is not easy to get real-time information about tank qualities that can affect plant operational decisions. This paper discusses the concept and economics of reduction in the lab analysis load by examining the planned schedule for the lab analysis and its reduction using model-based tracking of tank qualities. The savings can be substantial and demonstrate a method of estimating the cost of lab analysis load from just work hours of analysis.

Refiners must recognize the required organizational changes and use an efficient and cost-effective system design when upgrading an existing blending system to an advanced one. Part 1 of this series (OGJ, Feb. 14, 2005, p. 50) discussed the hardware and software required to implement an integrated blend control and Optimization system.
This series concludes by addressing the second component of an upgrade project— organizational changes required during an upgrade project that would lead to a sustained return on investment. The paper also discusses the assessment of the skills and technology gaps present in the refinery needed to eliminate for a successful blending project.
Both articles are based on a study conducted in a midsized refinery in North America.

Fuel Blending is essential to refinery operations, making 80-85% of fuel products from a crude oil barrel. Hence, a refinery must install the blending system using the latest technology to retain 25-40 M$/year benefits.
This paper discusses a case study of a North American 300 KB/Day refinery by benchmarking their fuel blending control and optimization system using 12 months of historical data.
The case study examined all aspects of the fuel blending system, from the automation effectiveness of infrastructure and operational efficiency of the blending system. Then, they were compared with the state-of-the-art system in the best-configured refinery, and a benchmarking index was established to help determine the investment required to revamp from a manual blending system to a fully automated system.

In a downstream refinery qualities of process streams and storage tanks are crucial for planning and manufacturing products to specs. The process streams are analyzed either by lab samples or online analyzers. However, tanks can be analyzed only by lab samples or online analyzers installed at the tank exits. For running tanks, it becomes a problem to plan following lab analysis available only after 10-12 hours, and they may not be the most current.
This paper discusses all aspects of an online Tanks Quality Tracking System, which has been conceptualized, developed, and tested by Offsite Management System (OMS) and commissioned by the Singapore Refining Company (SRC), which is jointly owned by ChevronTexaco and Singapore Petroleum Company. It has established tangible benefits from the tank quality tracking system.

A typical refinery or chemical processing plant has many activities that can be categorized into several areas: feed and product preparations, material movement, stabilization and optimization of unit operations, and information management. All refinery activities are further classified as either on-site or offsite operations. Most automation projects focus only on on-site operations and neglect offsite operations such as oil movement and product blending.
However, lately, the viability of a plant depends on how strongly the plant management is committed to automating these offsite operation areas to maintain its position in today''''s very competitive business.
This paper discusses three major integrated offsite automation systems: crude blending, product blending, and oil movement and storage, with tangible benefits of US$ 25-40 million/yr in realized benefits.

This paper presents the configurations and architecture of ABB''''s state-of-the-art Integrated Blend control, optimization, and planning system implemented at two PEMEX refineries in Cadereyta and Tula in Mexico. The blending control system implemented at PEMEX refineries is very sophisticated in field equipment and control software systems. The blending system involves online analyzers (NIR) for stocks and products. The control software system is a complete integration of all three levels of control, namely, a regulatory blend control, advanced online control and optimization, and offline optimization and planning systems. The regulatory blend control (RBC) is implemented in Fisher DCS ProVox and other blend control higher levels, advanced online control, optimization, and planning, on HP 9000/715 workstations.

The offsite operations in a typical refinery involve moving and storing raw materials, intermediate, and finished products from tanks to processing units and vice versa. This operation is often termed Oil Movement and Storage (OM&S).
Any control automation of processing units provides consistent product quality, better conversion yields, stable and safe operations, and significant tangible and intangible benefits such as overall plant efficiency, better usage of planning and scheduling management information systems, etc.
However, implementing an automation system for the Oil Movement & storage system requires an accurate cost and benefits analysis for its economic justifications. This paper discusses the methodology to analyze the OM&S operational data and calculate tangible benefits related to the automation of the OM&S system in a refinery.

A typical refinery or any processing plant has two main functions, namely, on-site and offsite operations. The on-site operations focus on the physical separation and chemical reductions of feedstock into intermediate and final products by processing units.
The offsite operations involve moving and storing raw materials, intermediate, and finished products from tanks to processing units and vice versa. Any control automation of processing units provides consistent product quality, better conversion yields, stable and safe operations, and significant tangible and intangible benefits such as overall plant efficiency, better usage of planning and scheduling management information systems, etc.
This paper discusses the functional modules of an overall system for automating OM&S System, blend control, and refinery information systems effectively.

A typical refinery or chemical processing plant has many activities that can be categorized into several areas: feed and product preparations, material movement, stabilization and optimization of unit operations, and information management. All refinery activities are further classified as either on-site or offsite operations.

Most automation projects focus only on on-site operations and neglect offsite operations such as oil movement and product blending. However, lately, the viability of a plant depends on how strongly the plant management is committed to automating these offsite operation areas to maintain its position in today's very competitive business.

This paper discusses three major integrated offsite automation systems: crude blending, product blending, and oil movement and storage. Implementing these offsite integrated systems can save US$ 25-40 million/yr in realized benefits.

This paper discusses the scope and feasibility of an integrated Crude Blending control, optimization, and scheduling system to control the qualities of crude feed and end products and automate oil movement and storage operations. Crude blending differs from product blending in concepts, complexity, and implementation.

Crude is blended upstream of the crude distillation unit, whereas product blending is done at the downstream side of the unit. This paper identifies six control application modules for an overall integration system to provide the quality control and optimization of the crude feed to and products from the crude unit.

Briefly, it discusses each control module''''s functionality, including user interfaces and information flow samples.