Our client is an integrated North American energy company seeking a non-capital improvement project to reduce their refinery mass and custody transfer losses at one of their Mid-West refineries. Over 28 weeks, Trindent implemented 15 process changes and management operating systems that reduced refinery mass loss by 74%, enhanced custody transfer oversight, and mitigated $21,500,000 in annual losses.
How we Made it Happen™
Refinery Mass Balance
- Enhanced mass balance reconciliation process to incorporate density accuracy evaluation, dry gas yield validation, dry petcoke adjustments, and crude tank reclassifications, leading to a 74% reduction in Refinery Mass Loss and liquid yield accuracy improvement by 32%.
- Implemented a formal monthly Refinery Mass Balance review process to effectively diagnose root causes and assign corrective actions.
Custody Meter Oversight
- Implemented a streamlined process to acquire, consolidate, and analyze meter proving reports for custody transfer assurance of inbound crude and outbound refined products.
- Installed Meter Factor Control Charts (MFCCs) to monitor the accuracy of all 78 custody transfer meters.
- Integrated all MFCCs into a centralized automated oversight tool to streamline the monitoring process and maximize automation.
- Developed and installed a standardized 3rd party escalation process to ensure timely meter maintenance and/or correction of meter factors.
Third Party Oversight
- Corrected refinery Lab and Pipeline counterpart crude sediment & water measurement practices, ensuring alignment with API MPMS 10.3 and 10.4, reducing variance by 36%.
- Implemented a pipeline sediment & water monitoring tool and escalation process to reconcile statistically significant variances.
- Established marine loading oversight to maximize movements into higher value markets.
Tank Gauging & Inventory Management
- Decreased inventory variance by installing a centralized tool to track automatic to manual tank gauge variances, drive timely calibrations, and highlight critical outstanding work orders.
- Aligned existing tank gauging procedures with API MPMS 3.1 best practices, reducing manual and automatic level variance by 36%.
- Implemented an annual internal witnessing program to ensure procedure adherence and sustainment.
“Your team’s commitment to collaboration was a clear differentiator. By thoughtfully challenging established practices and working closely with our operations at every level, novel and meaningful opportunities were identified and brought to fruition. This approach fostered open dialogue and trust while reinforcing accountability and alignment across the organization, enablinggreater ownership of performance and results."