In-House Profit Improvement Program in Takreer
Authors: Al-Mansoori Ali 
Published: November 2017

Objectives/Scope

The Refining Company of ADNOC Operates Three Refineries in the emirate of Abu Dhabi (UAE) with a total Crude Oil and Condensate Distillation capacity of 927,000 Barrels per day covering the complexes of Abu Dhabi Refinery, Ruwais Refinery East (includes two condensate splitter trains) and Ruwais Refinery West (that has the biggest single crude Distillation column in the world with capacity of 417 KBBls per day and the biggest RFCC unit in the world with capacity of 127 KBBS per day and state of the art technologies). The refineries are interlinked with a network of pipelines that allow transfer of utilities, intermediate and finished products stream and thus achieve high level of integration. The company handles about 110 intermediate streams in all the refineries and 6-18 different products are blended on daily basis. Also, both Refineries in Ruwais Area are linked to the neighboring companies for further integration of specific streams like fuel gas, blending components and intermediate streams. The main Petroleum Products produced are LPG, Propylene, Naphtha, Gasoline, Gasoil, Jet Fuel, fuel Oil, Base oils and soon we will produce Carbon Black and Calcined Coke. These products are sold in the local market as well are exported. Different grades are produced to meet both markets.

The company also operates Primary Product Supply Terminal in Abu Dhabi and a vast pipeline network (total combined length that is close to 2,000 kms) to form the main hub of supplying the finished petroleum products to the local market of Abu Dhabi emirate.

It also operates General Utilities Plant (GUP) at Ruwais Industrial area that supplies different utilities (includes Power, Sea water, Potables water, etc.) to Ruwais Refineries as well as other industrial complexes of all the major companies and ADNOC Housing Complex at Ruwais area. Furthermore, it operates Industrial Waste Management facility "Beaat" at Ruwais Industrial area that receives all the industrial waste from all ADNOC Companies for further disposal, incineration, landfill, etc.

Operating such highly complex operation and with the current highly competitive market, it necessitates the need to put more focus to identify areas of profitability improvement and stretch the Dollar to the last cent. This is not a luxury but rather a matter of survival of the fittest who reduces his cost and maximizes his profit. Profit Improvement Program implemented in the company as part of Operational excellence activity to improve the Refinery profitability by creating a culture and systems for continuous and sustained profit from various opportunities exists or arises in Supply chain and production optimizations process. It is actually a very dynamic process that depends largely on the changing market conditions, the internal flexibility in terms of assets, processes, people, procedures and the company's ability to recognize the opportunities and capturing them.

Refinery Production & supply chain operations are optimized for Global Solution using the integrated Multiplant Refinery Linear programing model with an objective of maximum operating profit while meeting the product commitments. The company established long-term and short term production planning system with involvement of its operating sites, marketing, sales & trading, and other operating companies.

The company being in refining industry for more than three decades, the most "profit drivers of refining business involving macro/micro optimization have already been fully addressed and exploited. These include: