The 5th Operational Excellence in Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals Conference – Op-Ex Russia & CIS 2018 was held for the first time in a three-day format from 14-16 November in Sochi, Russia. For two consecutive years, Rosneft and Gazprom Neft were the co-hosts of the event.
Op-Ex Russia & CIS brought together over 100 representatives of oil, gas and petrochemical companies as well as leading suppliers of technologies, services and solutions for discussion of the key issues related to operational excellence.
Presented and discussed during the conference were best practices to achieve a high level of operational excellence as well as advanced methods, tools and solutions to improve reliability, profitability and integrity of processes and assets. Leading oil, gas and petrochemical companies, as well as major technology and service companies, shared their experience, knowledge and success stories.
In the opening speech of Op-Ex 2018, Boris Fedyanin, Director of Oil Refining Efficiency at Rosneft, noted the high importance of improving operational excellence for the company:
“Today, Rosneft is the leader in terms of capacity and volume of oil refining in Russia. The company's activities in the field of refining in recent years have been aimed at meeting market demand for high-quality petroleum products and at increasing internal efficiency and competitiveness. Continuous improvement of production and management processes is the main source of added value and high asset margins”.
Issues of strategic and operational management and development of facilities were discussed at the conference: conditions for sustainable development, prospects for innovative transformation of refining and petrochemical industries. Colin Chapman, President of Euro Petroleum Consultants, and Artem Kozlovsky, Partner at EY, spoke about international best practices and the conference partners Rosneft, Bashneft, and Gazprom Neft shared the achievements of Russian companies.
The main theme of Gazprom Neft’s presentations was the exchange of information on best practices for achieving a high level of operational excellence accumulated during the implementation of projects at a number of plants. Mikhail Ivaschenko, Head of Promising Projects Program at the Operations Management System (OMS) Development Center, welcomed the participants of the conference on behalf of Gazprom Neft, noted the high level of participants and the relevance of the topics discussed during the event, stressing the role of open space for discussing past mistakes and improvement prospects for all companies involved in the development of refining and petrochemicals in Russia and the CIS countries. He shared plans and results of introducing an innovative approach to operating management, which was called the Etalon System: its goal was to ensure maximum operational excellence of the company due to the reliability and safety of production activities and the involvement of all employees in the continuous improvement process through corporate culture development. A similar system allowed international industry corporations such as ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, BP, and Chevron to achieve a significant increase in production and financial performance (for example, the profitability of invested capital). The first platform for the implementation of the program was the Omsk lubricants plant, which is part of the company. Gazprom Neft pays special attention to the most important component of any system for improving operational excellence – human resources and their participation in the process; OE's corporate culture is an indispensable link of all elements; its level ultimately determines the extent to which the company achieves sustainable growth objectives.
One of the most memorable speeches according to the participants, was the report of Alexey Ivanov, General Director of LUKOIL’s Ukhta Refinery. He shared valuable observations on the work of enterprises and the unique work experience in the LUKOIL corporate center and Refinery management. His recommendations will be relevant to all domestic processing assets.
Key specialists and managers of Honeywell, Schneider Electric, AVEVA, Intergraph (a Hexagon company), Axens, AspenTech, and ASE EC (an engineering division of Rosatom) spoke about the latest developments in the field of automation and digitalization, in particular, advanced tools for APC-systems, digital doubles and information platforms. A joint report of Modum Lab and Gazpromneft-Lubricants presented a working model of introducing digital solutions into the activities of a large manufacturing company. Reports on technologies of predictive analytics, optimization, and provision of cybersecurity and effective maintenance of the facilities. Honeywell, MODCON Systems, BHGE, and Bentley Systems presented a topic that has not lost its significance over the past few years - improving the efficiency of enterprises. Reliable modern equipment and high energy efficiency play a key role in increasing productivity and safe operation - as told by experts from Alfa Laval, Cameron (a Schlumberger company), Schneider Electric and Kelvion.
An interactive session on the latest trends in the field of digitalization was presented, during which solution providers - Honeywell, Modum Lab, and Bentley Systems - demonstrated their latest developments and solutions in Virtual and Augmented Realities and others.
To find out more about operational excellence, please don't miss out on attending EPC’s specialized and focused events: OPEX MENA 2019 taking place on 27-28 March 2019 in Bahrain and the 6th Op-Ex Russia & CIS that is scheduled to be held in November 2019 in Sochi, Russia.
Euro Petroleum Consultants is a technical oil and gas consultancy with offices in Dubai, London, Moscow, Sofia and Kuala Lumpur. Euro Petroleum Consultants also organises leading conferences and training courses worldwide. For further details
please visit www.europetro.com.